The Consequence of Mercy
by seghen
Summary: Chloe Sullivan is alone in her distrust of the nations President or better described as Dictator, Alexander Luthor. Why, you ask? Because she actually knows him and what he is capable of. This does not stop his pursuit...UPDATED
1. Chloe at the Planet

**I just started reading Smallville fanfiction and decided to try it on for size. Of course, it's a story of mine, so there's gonna be considerable angst. This is gonna be a story...I think.**

Chloe Sullivan did not strut. Unlike most of her other friends she found strutting and other acts of allure useless and too game-like for her and Chloe prided herself on being brash and honest. While these were admirable qualities in a reporter, not very many people appreciated her view on absolute truths and went as far to call her a tease and a snoop.

The nerve!

So she walked down the hallway rather briskly, her manner so business-like that none of the men in the other cubicles dared to look at the petite blond admiringly, despite the shortness of her skirt or the flattering neckline of her blouse. She, of course, noticed none of this and continued towards her full-sized office as hastily as she could manage.

She had a deadline.

After three years at the Daily Planet and four years as editor of the Torch, she had quickly learnt the importance of deadlines. Her editor would skin her alive if she did not hand in her report on the drastically rising gas prices on the east coast. The damned bitch was looking for an excuse to fire her, anyway.

She adamantly refused to do even a single story that dealt with the President of the United States, who happened to be an old friend and current enemy and someone who she enjoyed calling a ruthless dictator, off the record, of course. With the way that Alexander Luthor had warped her country after his past two years in office it was hardly a shock that she was one of

the few who opposed to his presidency.

"'Reign' would be more accurate," she thought darkly as she pushed through her office door, closing the blinds discreetly before collapsing onto her chair and kicking her feet onto her desk. But

there was no time for rest and relaxation; she had to suffer through another bone-crunchingly dull story, unfortunately.

After years in Smallville and experience with untrustworthy people Chloe had become rather paranoid. She had no copies of her work nor did she have access to her annotations and she needed to get through three programs before she'd be able to so much as access any of her files. Not all of them were reports on gasoline prices, and her boss had made it quite clear that anyone anti-Luthor could pack up their desks and try their luck at peddling papers opposed to printing them. While she was a woman of honesty, she was no fool.

As she typed furiously she calculated the percentage increase from last week's gas

prices in comparison to this week's. She rebelled in her own way, because questioning the drastic oil and gasoline price increases was in a way questioning Lex's economic system. She reveled in this fact, though a small comfort it was.

"In the past six days the average price increase has been twenty three point sixty four

percent...question ethics of those in control...no disaster nor problems, why the sudden augmentation...?" She read pieces of her work aloud, wanting the piece to seem inquisitive, yet not pestering. Running it through an error-free grammatical program, she e-mailed it to Simone, the cold hearted bitch. She mentally added to the title with a mischievous smirk before pushing a strand of flyaway blond hair behind her ear.

She found it best to begin research on a new story, though her topics were limited. Lex Luthor and his PR people did a fantastic job of stealing the front page of the papers with his great deeds, his merging of LuthorCorp with some other household name. She was disgusted by the sight of Lex doing work for charity or working on amending the Constitution and Bill of Rights to better fit the people. She found these acts to be complete and utter bullshit.

None of her sources could find any dirt on him whatsoever. Clean as a whistle, and boy, he knew how to cover up his tracks. Any questionable aspects of his life were pinned on someone else, making him come out smelling fresh as a rose. He had never been accused of any crime nor been indicted.

Anyone close with Chloe would relate her determination to find something, anything, wrong with their "leader" with that fact that she was simply obsessed. She wished that it was as easy as that, a simply fixation to get over. But it was more. She knew him; she knew that there was more. Lex Luthor was many things, but a kind a generous person was not on the list.

She had covered many of his speeches and dedications, hoping for some error or something of the sort, but finding absolutely nothing. It was not just his flawed character that bothered her; it was the fact that he was approaching world domination slowly yet surely. He had many of the smaller countries wrapped around his masculine ,yet manicured, finger and was changing foreign policy one step at a time in hopes of reaching what he called, "Worldwide Mutual Understanding." She read between the lines and interpreted that he was not satisfied with simply controlling the world's economic and military superpower. "Relative deprivation," she mumbled, recalling a lesson she had taken in high school about absolute monarchs always wanting more than they had. He reminded her vaguely of Adolf Hitler, for Lex too it seemed was a fascist dictator wrapped in a charismatic shell.

The knock on her office door awoke her from her reverie. "Come in," she called out, slightly alarmed.

Simone's mousy looking assistant Janis poked her thin face through the doorway, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. "Ms. Sullivan?" Her tone inexplicably irritated her, high-pitched and twittering.

"Yes, Janis?" she responded tiredly, taking her feet from off of her desk and composing yourself. The usually expressionless girl looked rather eager, this was both surprising and annoying Chloe at the same time.

"There's someone here to see you, Ms. Sullivan." Chloe looked at the secretary or assistant as they now preferred to be called, in surprise.

"Oh, who?" she was rarely visited by anyone after Clark had figuratively taken flight and Lana had gone with him. The pain of the memory still burnt in her mind as though it was fresh and she winced slightly. Janis did not seem to notice.

"I can barely believe it, but Alexander Luthor's people have just contacted us. The President wants to talk! With you!" At that moment Chloe would have indefinitely preferred having Lana and Clark's love thrust in her face to this reunion

**Like? Hate? Anything? Please review, I think I'll continue this.**


	2. Symone the Unreasonable

**Wow, I got nine reviews on my first chappie! That's a first... I decided to dabble in other fic areas, I should have a Batman story coming out in a day or two and I'm considering a Red Eye fic, but those are difficult. I read some of them and though they're good they ALL seem the same. Jackson's alive again, he abducts Lisa, they fall for each other a bit too quickly...you know, the usual. I had a nightmare about Nightmare on Elm Street so I might write a full-length story on that, though that movie was made in like the eighties. I wasn't born until two years after the eighties were over, but it really should've been my era...wow, I really know how to ramble! Please tell me what you think. I like this story so far. AND THANK YOU to Christ-Sasami-Bunny, gwen rhosyn, Snow Lepord, Eviv, withjo, Kit Merlot, TTFN, Crazy Danae (the reason the editor doesn't want her controversial stories is because Lex Luthor has become more powerful than any preceding President and if they were to publish articles against him there is little doubt that he would shut down The Daily Planet for 'libel.' Freedom of speech is practically dead and twitching), and Kitty Black Cat! All of your questions'll be answered in due time...**

Chloe straightened her blouse obsessively and pushed a tendril of her blond hair behind her ear, both anxious and annoyed with herself for being so. "Symone, why don't you lasso someone else into doing this?" she pleaded to her stocky and obstinate boss.

The woman whirled around, her mousy brown hair flying out at odd angles on her head. "Someone else, Sullivan? The President of the United States wants to speak...with you, and you're trying to weasel your way out of it? What are you thinking? Do you realize that this could make your career?" Chloe restrained from rolling her eyes at her boss's uncontrollable questioning tactics. She knew full well that Symone could care less whether Chloe was alive or dead after the unofficial interview took place.

President Luthor generally refused to be interviewed, and this could mean major profits for the Planet if this story were published. Chloe could tell that Symone was giddy from excitement as she moved around the office anxiously, redecorating.

Chloe called after her, following her much like a shadow. "What about Lois? He knew her, too. I bet if you'd just ask him he'd be fine taking my cousin." She would have liked nothing more than to staple her lips shut after that insinuation.

Symone did not seem to notice. "He doesn't want Lane, Sullivan. He specifically asked for you, and he will be here momentarily to speak with you, not Lane, not Conners, but you, Sullivan." Chloe vaguely realized that her boss had never addressed her by her first name since she had been employed. She could care less, seeing as she preferred her surname, anyway.

"It's too personal, I knew him when I was in high school through..." she hesitated, knowing that any mention of Clark would perk up Symone's reporter ears, "a mutual friend." She finished hastily, looking up at her boss to make sure that she had not noticed the rather pregnant pause.

Luck was with her, though Symone was not. "He wants you, he's Commander in Chief and you're his." Even she seemed to realize how entirely demanding this was. "And I'll consider an early bonus for you. Perhaps a few days off if we can spare you. Think of the publicity if we were the first newspaper to publish a face-to-face interview with the Alexander Luthor after the election. The coverage would be phenomenal," she breathed out a wistful sigh at the very thought. ignoring Chloe's look of evident exasperation.

"Couldn't you have told me before you agreed to all this? I've seen him enough for every day of my life and I never want to again!" Symone faked a sympathetic simper before talking right over her.

"I told Janis to tell you, and she did or else you wouldn't be here, would you?" she said loftily, pushing her bejeweled spectacles onto her pug nose, squinting her eyes out the window in anticipation.

Chloe groaned, pulling down on her navy skirt worriedly. "Did he ever say that he would condone an interview? Maybe he'll refuse to be interviewed." Symone looked disconcerted for a moment before overcoming her own discomfort.

"I'm sure that he would, Sullivan. His people spoke to our people and he seemed quite eager." Chloe did not appreciate the flippant use of "our" but she did well by ignoring it.

The intercom on her desk crackled briefly before finally releasing the anxious adolescent voice of Jeffrey Sanders, the summer intern. "Symone?" he asked nervously. She refused to be called by her surname, though she insisted on addressing everyone else as so.

She held the button down, leaning her head down and speaking sweetly, "Yes, Sanders?" Her reply was polite, she was bearing her horse teeth in a broad grin. Chloe shuffled uncomfortably.

"Mister...um, eh, uh President Luthor has arrived," he revised sloppily, stuttering as he spoke. Symone let slip a squeal of joy before responding in a very businesslike manner.

"Send him in. Sullivan is ready." Her voice was rich and syrupy, as though she was hoping that the President would be leaning in to hear her reaction.

"I can't do this. Say that I'm...busy, or sick, yeah, sick is better," Chloe said eagerly, knowing that she would not accept this.

And she was right.

"No, Sullivan. Now straighten up your hair, powder your face and smooth your shirt. You have graciously agreed to hold the meeting in your office for a more personal, earthy feel. Now sprint, he'll probably be waiting by the time you get back. You would be on time if you hadn't insisted on wasting your time here with me." Chloe found herself being shooed from Symone's office, practically shoved out the door and locked out.

She recalled a time long ago where she would not have tolerated someone treating her abominably but in time she had seen the disappointing truth. To get anywhere, she had to put up with this type "crap", for lack of a better term, if she wanted to get anywhere. Her days as Torch editor were far behind her and people like Symone were necessary evils in the formula to success.

Chloe had half a mind to turn around and run away get into her car and drive back to Smallville, back to her father and hide under her bed until she was sure that he was gone. But that horrible, monstrous, gut wrenching "responsible" side of her knew that avoidance was not the solution. "Damn that Dr. Phil," she thought to herself bitterly, regretting those dull afternoons where she had succumbed to talk show television programs. But honestly, how realistic was Jerry Springer?

Her steps slowed the nearer she came to her office and the flight or fight response kicked in as the urge to sprint away grew steadily. Chloe attempted to control her breathing and resisted wheezing, if barely, as her hand closed over the doorknob. She was suddenly aware of how sweaty her palms were.

She licked her lips cautiously, wiping her brow cautiously as the knob slowly turned. "I'm a sucker for punishment," she considered silently with a frown. Taking a deep breath, she pushed a fraction of her weight into the door and walked directly into it, drawing herself to her full height and taking in a shaky breath.

"Hello, Chloe," Lex greeted her with a smarmy smile. "Here we go," Chloe thought.

Haha, a cliffie! 


	3. A Rather Subdued Meeting

**I'm back!**

She did her best to maintain a businesslike manner as she cautiously approached the President of the United States, rather alarmed at the fact that several secret service men did not flank him. She attempted to keep her face straight and expressionless as she straightened her posture. "Good afternoon, Mr. Luthor," she stated in an indifferent, but not unkind manner she was cautious of her body language as she

approached him.

He was as strangely handsome as ever, his baldhead glistening in even the dimmed light that the old lamp provided; he looked somewhat more prim than usual, yet not any less sharp for it in his silver tie and black blazer. "Always been a sharp dresser," she thought sardonically to herself.

He did not seem to find the introduction fitting. "Mister Luthor, not Lex or Commander-In-Chief Luthor?" His tone was polite, but challenging. Her lip curled into a sneer that she found difficult to conceal.

She found it best to ignore the inquiry all together. "Why did you insist that I interviewed you, Mr. Luthor?" There was ill-conceived spite and malice in her voice and he simply smirked at her in return.

"I found it best to inform the citizens of Kansas, the state where I grew up, of my personality and opinion on some current events so that at least some won't find me quite as intimidating as they do at the present moment." The speech sounded rehearsed.

"Well, I doubt that some people will just read an article and change their perspective of you," she replied sweetly, avoiding his eyes as she sat down by her desk, immediately noticing that he had taken her computer chair and replaced hers with a straight-backed wooden one. "And take a seat, any one you're comfy with," she said sarcastically. He acted as though he had not heard her last remark and only spoke when she took out an old-fashioned tape recorder.

"I would like pieces of this interview this to be completely off the record, Ms. Sullivan, though you can take notes if you would like. There are some things that I would like to address that I'm sure you wouldn't want to publish in an article." His apparent courtesy was beginning to unnerve her.

"I don't want to write this article at all," she said, but put the recorder away, nonetheless. "Now can you inform me as to why you couldn't have called a few days in advance for this?" She attempted and failed to sound calm.

He smirked slightly. "I had a feeling that you might decide to quit, despite the fact that working at the Planet has been your dream since birth. I did not want to give you the option of escape." She frowned deeply.

"You make it sound like I'm some sort of felon, Luthor," she snapped in reply, carefully straightening her spine and glaring at the computer screen. The bastard had the audacity to look amused by her discomfort.

"It took a long while to find you, Chloe. That time could have been better spent." She barely refrained from rolling her eyes. This was what she had been expecting from the moment she had laid eyes on him, his swift rebuking.

After a dramatic pause, she replied, "You should've spent it better then shouldn't have you? Not my fault that you were chasing smoke." A look of grim satisfaction played on her face.

She could tell without even looking at him that he was fighting the urge to lash out, but he would not be the one to break first. "The smoke turned out to be quite corporeal, in the end, when you made an obvious move and began to fulfill your dreams through the Daily Planet, a paper my father bought and paid for before you were even a gleam in your father's eye," he replied smoothly.

"If it was such an 'obvious move' then why did it take you three years to figure it out?" she asked, all thoughts of their alleged interview all but forgotten.

He remained silent for a moment, seemingly considering all of this. "It took me less than two years, actually. You are rather difficult to get a hold of, Chloe. Slipping in and out of your apartment, signing your articles in pseudonyms, it took me a while to glance in my employment records to realize that you are actually on my payroll. 'Chloe Sullivan', you didn't even bother to write up new papers and make yourself something a bit less conspicuous." She sneered slightly.

"I didn't feel like it. Too much paperwork and I've never been afraid of you," she replied childishly. "I wasn't about to ruin my life so that some crazy ex can't find me," she added hastily upon seeing his haughty expression.

"It's far too easy to find someone that does not wish to be found than someone who could care less when they have access to the sort of resources that are at my disposal." She was unsure whether or not he was agreeing with her.

She decided to take a different track. "Why'd you come here? To rub it in my face that now you're 'supreme ruler of the free world' and I'm still stuck in Kansas?" The direct approach was always best.

He did not miss a beat. "You never really wanted to leave Kansas, though, did you, Chloe? You wanted to move on from Smallville and be 'reporter extraordinaire' at the Daily Planet," He argued.

She narrowed her eyes. "You did just about everything you could to stop that, too. 'Substandard in the work force.' 'Unprofessional?' You might as well have thrown me in a hole and tried to bury me," He laughed slightly at that.

"You would have burrowed your way out, somehow. You're almost as invincible as Clark…" he had said the magic words. Chloe leapt to her feet, kicking papers off of her desk and flew over to Lex, looking hauntingly intimidating by the flickering lamplight.

"Shut your mouth," she said, looking from side to side as though an eager reporter would come out of the woodwork at any moment. He seemed perfectly at ease.

"Your tape recorder is off and I'm not wired. Why shouldn't we speak candidly?" he challenged, evidently amused by the look of terror that was pasted across Chloe's face.

"Because," she began loudly before hastily dropping her voice, "it isn't our secret to talk about, Lex." It was the first time she had lapsed into calling him by his informal name. He did not seem to notice, maybe not to care.

"It didn't bother you that he didn't tell anyone, that all through high school you never even knew that your best friend could melt bullets with his eyes?" he asked, evidently a rhetoric question for he knew that it did.

She answered nonetheless, "He couldn't tell us because people like you would use it to exploit him and treat him like one of your little experiments at LuthorCorp."

"He should be so lucky. I'll have you know that I treat the experiments at my company quite well."

She laughed harshly at his words. "Except the ones that strangely end up dead, deranged or with serious deformities. People that trusted you cover half my wall of weird," she retorted with a grim frown.

He did not seem to note the insult. "Ah, the infamous 'Wall of Weird.' You still have that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I still have it."

"Update it regularly?" She nodded¸ sensing that this topic was going somewhere that she did not want for it to go. "Is your beloved Clark on there?" That was exactly what she had been dreading.

"Of course not," she answered in a hushed tone. He had the grace to look surprised.

"No? Last I checked you had every failed LuthorCorp project, but no Clark? The one who caused it all?" She bit her lip so hard that it left indents where her teeth had been.

"He was a kid and Clark was smart enough to keep out of the papers." He tilted one arched eyebrow in mock alarm.

"But his alter ego makes front page news on a weekly basis." She froze, her eyes widening at his seemingly harmless comment.

"We're two of the very few who know that, Luthor," she answered harshly. "And it's none of your damn business what Superman does, as long as it's not illegal." She had unwittingly gotten the point.

"Perhaps he's not the law abiding superhero that everyone knows and loves. Maybe he's not as innocent as he seems." She whirled around on him, fury in her eyes.

"You…wouldn't," she said slowly, not believing it herself. He smirked in that self-assured way of his before nodding.

"Oh, yes I would."

**haha, hate the cliffies, dontcha? dropped a few hints, i screwed up the format so i had to fix it.**


	4. Foolish games

**I took a much needed hiatus, only periodically reemerging when inspiration sparingly struck. Now here I am, and, just a warning, this fic has not been edited by my extremely wonderful beta because im already overworking her and I hope that spell check will do! review, please, because i like this story but it's difficult to update when you think no one's reading!**

**PS: the plot, it thickens.**

Her knuckles turned paper white as her hands closed over the side of her polished wooden desk. "You so much as say a syllable and I'll be gone in five seconds flat." She said through gritted teeth. He was, irritatingly, not surprised by her proclamation.

His thin mouth broke into a smile, baring all of his pearly whites. "I have _no _intention of allowing that to happen again." She narrowed her eyes, realizing how shrewish she appeared.

"It's not your choice, _Mr. _Luthor. You should have figured out by now that it's never been your choice." She snapped, twirling the dull pencil in between her fingers, disregarding it as a potential weapon.

"Clark lied to the both of us, I'm surprised that you've never considered exacting some sort of revenge. I thought you were smarter than that." Lex said mildly, all of his conviction in his deadpanned tone.

She quirked a single eyebrow. "Is this the part where I get all huffy and defensive and go up and try to prove you wrong, in essence proving your point? Try something else, I'm not your show dog. I don't jump through hoops for anybody, let alone _you_." She snapped scathingly.

A glint of malevolent admiration flickered to his eyes. The expression was so brief that Chloe was not entirely convinced that she had not simply imagined it. "Do you want this interview or not?" She concealed her outrage effectively, only a roll of the eyes a tell-tale sign.

"I'll call Lois in, or even Maureen. You don't need me for this." She replied, leaning over her desk for the small white speaker box. In one florid motion he was beside her, hand resting on her elbow.

"I'll always need you." His eyes betrayed nothing, as expressionless as ever. She spared him a withering glare before pushing his hand away.

"You should have thought about that before." She said stiffly, equally as aloof. "Lois, you're needed in my office." She stepped out of the door without even glancing over her shoulder. It took more restrain than she would have wished to admit.

Symone, unlike Lex, was easy to read. With a simple flick of her wrist a pile of newsprint landed on her lap, creasing her well-ironed skirt. With a questioning glance she lifted up the paper and read aloud the booming title.

**PRESIDENT LUTHOR SPEAKS HIS MIND.**

****_Tom Caine, The Metropolis Sun_

Chloe glowered hatefully at the front page briefly, Lex Luthor shown beside the article wearing his most charismatic smile. "Bastard," She muttered, disregarding the title page and leafing her way to the horoscopes.

Symone stared at her, completely slack jawed, astonished by her indifference. "You, no, _we_'ve been scooped! And _you _allowed it to happen!" Now that she had her pronouns in order, Chloe felt most obliged to seem halfheartedly apologetic.

"Hitler, no, excuse me, _President Luthor, _refused to speak business and I was incline-_forced _to redirect him to Lois. I couldn't squeeze an article out of him, he was just there to catch up." Needless to say she did not oblige and Symone stormed off, a storm of curses rolling off her tongue as she did so.

"Touchy." Chloe said mildly, refusing to allow this to anger her. She knew Lex Luthor far too well to underestimate his own knowledge of herself. He was hoping that this bit of treachery would force her into speaking terms with him. He was clearly not quite as clever as he seemed to think.

The frenzied media, hungry for more of their baby-faced, human rights-limiting leader, had shockingly not discovered any of their 'affair.' She thanked God that it wasn't well-documented, no expensive earrings to be found on his credit card bill, intricate lingerie, or anything else of the sort.

He was only an aspiring, filthy-rich politician and she was an average college graduate, fresh and full of inspiration. They were both consenting adults with no idea what they were about to enter, no idea the pain that would potentially surface.

Chloe pushed her pencil through the loose bun atop her head, twirling a tendril of hair before reading aloud her horoscope, despite the fact that she never believed any of that nonsense. It was all painfully vague business, and hers happened to be "a business venture will have an unexpected turn," but didn't they always?

Her hand twitched, the urge to delve into Lex's article growing with her anticipation. _Curiosity killed the cat..._so what? Let the damned cat die. She flipped to page three, glancing at his picture for but an instant before breaking into a grim smile. She was not going to lose, no, not this time. It was a fight three years in the making and she was not about to abandon it.

_Let the games begin. _And oh, how they would.


	5. A different tack

**Sry it's kind of short, I wrote this in free period! Hope u enjoy.**

It had been nearly four full earth cyclesround the sun since Chloe had spoken with Lana. She felt no inclination to further what used to be their friendship and she was nearly certain that her dear comrade felt no ill feelings about the end of their connection. When the relationship between she and Clark had dissipated, it had been like World War II. It was time to take sides and she had chosen Clark. The link between the blond and brunette had shortly after came to an end.

Chloe knew how Lana must have seen her, a little girl whose curiosity often got her in way over her head, while Lana preferred to see herself as a refined young lady with impeccable taste. It was never distinguished who ended the short and ill-fated Lana/Lex affair but it was always implied that she was the one who cut the cord. At the time that it occurred Chloe was busy with other things, such as college and the newspaper, she never would have dreamt that their relationship could have bled into her life.

**SIX YEARS EARLIER**

Chloe had coffee on her blouse, her left bra strap was frayed to the point of no return and she was running out of air freshener. Typing skillfully with one hand as she held a bacon egg and cheese in the other, Chloe was nearly half way done with her report which's due date was in less than a week.

Lois was in the trenches again, shamelessly doing much of her cousin's dirty work. Clark was flying around elsewhere, not donning his cape and losing his glasses quite yet. Still, his antics were never short of appearing in the newspaper three times weekly, referred to as a rogue, hero, or villain depending on the publication. Chloe's itch for a Pulitzer some day did not outweigh her obligation to keep Clark's secret. Temptation was getting harder to resist.

Her coffee had no sugar. Her bagel sandwich was still cold and her vision was fuzzy from concentrating on the computer screen for far too long. She needed a break, and she needed one desperately. Without even turning off her monitor she stood up, staggering backward. Her legs felt raw and unused, like a baby calf. Every movement exerted pain that she could have done without, the tenseness of her shoulders and thighs seemed ever present. The clock read 10:34 in the morning. She had been on that damned computer for fourteen hours. _Why hadn't Pauline warned me?_ She wondered; feeling incredibly harassed.

"Got something on your mind, Miss Sullivan?" She jumped into the air; a thin piece of bacon falling from the sandwich the snack boy had given her over an hour ago. The man behind her was none other than Alexander Luthor.

"God, Lex, you scared me." She muttered, running her fingers through the length of her hair.

"You look jittery, Miss Sullivan. Have you even slept yet?" She shrugged, perfectly aware that it came off as a twitch. She silently wondered how horribly bloodshot her eyes must have been. She was a caffeine junkie. "C'mon, I'll take you to your dorm." She narrowed her eyes, rolling her shoulders in an attempt to get the crick out of her back.

"No, no. I'm good. I just need to get more food in me. Nine cups on an empty stomach can't be good for me." Suddenly appalled by the sandwich in her grasp, she tossed it aside. "Are you looking for Lois? She's out on an errand." Her tongue darted out of her mouth, covering the length of her top lip quickly.

He glanced at her appraisingly, as though looking for some telltale sign of distress. She wasn't good at playing it cool. "I'll take you to get something, I was supposed to have an interview today but it appears to have fallen through." She nodded, suddenly painfully aware of the fact that her breath smelt nearly rotten.

"For your run for governor, right? Good luck on that, but I think that I'll just go home." _And pop in a tic-tac or four._

"Hopefully it won't stop at governor. I'm hoping to join the presidential count in a few years." She knew that this was somewhat of a stretch, even for him, but kept her smelly mouth shut.

"What about Lana? What does she think of all this?"

She had never seen him get so flustered so rapidly. "Well I-um, ahem…she didn't tell you? We have come to a parting of the ways, there were several decisions that needed making and, um, ah-we've made them." His words sounded so calm and adult, though his expression betrayed his own grave discomfort.

_So much for keeping my mouth shut. _She thought grimly, not quite sure what to say. So she resorted to the age-old tradition. "Its nice weather we're having down here in Metropolis, isn't it?" With a look nearly pained bemusement, he moved several steps to the left, his expensive shoes _click_ing on the linoleum. When he arrived at the window he yanked up the blinds, revealing dreary conditions.

"It's been raining since last night."

Feeling a blush rise to her cheeks, she muttered, "It was nice last time I looked out side." This merited her a quirk of the lips via Lex. "I really need to get out more, I think I'm developing claustrophobia."

"All of those long hours at the Torch didn't prepare you for this?" He asked, giving the mild impression that he was mocking her. This did not go unnoticed.

"Even a mentorship with the evil-bitch-monster-from-hell herself couldn't have possibly prepared me for this. She gave me the religion beat _and_ local politics just because Eddie's out for the week. He's probably exhausted from being run into the ground _before _Pauline screamed at him for so long that he cried."

"The identity of 'the evil-bitch-monster from hell' comes out." She did not appreciate this mimicking version of Lex.

"If you hadn't figured it out before then I must've highly overrated your intelligence level."

"I'm a politician, Chloe." The name sounded almost unnatural coming from his lips. She infinitely preferred _Miss Sullivan._

"That doesn't mean your smart. Look at Bill Clinton!" An actual laugh escaped from his lips. Tired of being the subject of mockery, Chloe decided to close their little debate…or whatever it may be called. "Who were you meeting, I'll just tell them that you dropped by so that you can arrange a rain date-" He looked at her with such utter confusion that she was certain that she had something in her teeth.

"_We _had a meeting, Miss Sullivan." _There, much better._ "And it's raining as it is. Why don't we just stop by someplace for lunch-"

Without truly intending to, she cut him off. "Brunch, you mean. It's not even eleven in the morning. It's not really lunch." He smiled genuinely, as though he expected her to brook some sort of refusal.

"Already, we'll go to _brunch. _But on one condition." He said in such a debonair way that she was certain that he was flirting.

A bit uncomfortable, she replied, "And what is that?"

"It's on you."

**I didn't get this betaed b/c I wanted to get it out ASAP. Kind of a background on how their relationship got started, in case anyone was interested. Please review, im interested in feedback.**


	6. Jealousy

**Another flashback chapter, sorry, they're important to establish the relationship.**

At the current moment Chloe's exhaustion bordered on nausea. Her concentration was to be envied by any serious reporter who had to pull an all-nighter on nothing more than a bucketful of coffee. She was without a single pastry, anything to settle the caffeine that was beginning to become more of a curse than a blessing.

Throwing herself into her work seemed to be the easiest and most convenient way of forgetting the mere fact that Alexander Luthor was operating not-too-far away from her, using his influence to persuade thousands of good men to sell out. She supposed this to be their fault, but could not help but attribute this to _Congressman _Luthor. He knew exactly what he was doing and whom he would heart if this deal came through. Thousands of people would be affected, and hundreds out of work.

The fact that bothered her most was that her damn pride was getting in the way of this whole business. She was well aware that with proper _persuasion _he would surrender this certain business venture for the comfortable confines of a warm bed. She, however, had no intention of enticing her boyfriend into doing what was right using her female wiles. Chloe had a life of her own, a job to keep up with, and a career in the making. Or so she hoped.

The television was purposefully muted; she did not want to know when and if this _dealing _was carried out. She wished that she did not care, that she could stand blissfully by his side, as Lana had done, unaffected by what was going on around her. It would be so much simpler to swallow.

The phone rang at twelve past nine, and she nearly let it go, but she knew perfectly well what even one missed phone call would mean. Lex would have her followed for weeks, suspecting some sort of romantic tryst with someone, anyone, only satisfied after thorough investigation. As a way of victory, even before he was certain of her fidelity, he would take great pleasure in claiming her…repeatedly. As if Chloe were not clever enough to realize that if he could her 'beloved' would mark his territory like a dog, just so no man would be stupid enough to touch her.

She lifted up the telephone from the receiver gently, pressing it to her ear. "Hello?" She knew who it was; no one else would have called her at this time. Clark was in the building, or outside the building, saving the world. He had no need for phones.

"Where were you? It rang three times before you picked up. I'm coming over there, is everything alright?" She sighed before replying in the affirmative.

"You don't need to, I was just in my zone. I have to crank this story out by the end of the week, and that's in less than two days. Did everything go according to plan, or are the good people of Gotham Power and Electrics still bringing in thirty thou yearly?" He paused, as though suspicious.

"I'll be there in ten minutes, maybe less. Everything went well, or as well as things can go in such a boring function as this. We have another acquisition, another blip on the radar. Is Clark there? Is he bothering you? Breaking your concentration?" Whenever he patronized her she could not help but feel like a child, a flattered child, but a child all the same.

"No, he's not here and _you're _breaking my concentration. I'll see you tomorrow, celebrate your victory with your friends and associates."

There was a dead, almost lethal silence. "I don't _have _friends, Chloe. I have allies, and I have you. I can get you an extension." Feeling at the end of her tether, she let out a womanly sigh.

"I don't need you to pull some strings just so you can get a post-victory screw."

She heard something that resembled throat clearing. "That's _not _what this is about and I'm on my way, the limousine is on the move."

Chloe shook her head, knowing full well that he could not see the gesture. "I'm working hard and I haven't seen sunlight much sunlight in three damn days. Clark has threatened to kick me out…_twice._ I'll talk to you later, Lex." And she did the unthinkable. She hung up.

**It's short, kinda, but if I get input ill update within the week. If not…two/three weeks.**


	7. Quitting Coffee

Yeah, boredomupdates!

It was a natural assumption made by those who did not truly know Chloe Sullivan that she was still addicted to coffee. After the multiple teeth stains, the constant grumbling of the stomach and her caffeine withdrawals she suffered since the earliest days of the Torch, she had switched from her usual black, four sugars to a more soothing chamomile tea drink that had hooked her without physical repercussions.

She recalled when both she and Lex had rekindled their so-called friendship and she was running on empty, the terrors of a caffeine-jolted woman was even worse than a junkie. Symone was riding her ass to even greater lengths than before, as though to get her back for losing what was very likely to be the story of the month or something. The last thing she would have expected was for him to stumble into her office once more.

Chloe looked tasteful in her pair of loose fitting silk pants, her hair tied back in an off-white scrunchie. It was the first time in a long time that she felt rejuvenated, as though she had gotten a good night of sleep quite recently. Her descent from coffee had been a tumultuous road; one that she suspected could rival any other addictions.

Clark entered her office in his usual schoolboy mannerism, his windswept hair appearing charmingly casual, and his boyish good looks seeming eager as he approached. "I'll cover for you." She said, before his mouth could even open.

His teeth were revealed as he broke into a blinding smile, oh-so glad that she had anticipated him. "Thanks, I just heard a broadcast…" She nodded, completely in sync with his reasoning.

"You've got to save the world…again. I got it, I'll tell Symone the usual." She assured him without the least amount of hesitance.

"Family emergency?" He questioned, walking away when she nodded in ascent. "I'll see you later, 'Lois Lane'?" He implored, keenly staring at her.

"Of course, _Superman._" She replied affirmatively, not even glancing in his general direction as she typed furiously onto the keyboard. She was surprised to see his shadow contrast against her face as he kissed her cheek gently, sending goose bumps down her spine.

_Goose bumps? _She wondered, looking up in amazement only to see that he was no longer there. He had not so surprisingly high-tailed out of there. Butterflies in the stomach and goose bumps on her flesh had been strictly a high school experience; none of it had bled over into her professional life…at least, after Lex.

"Glad to see your boyfriend has vacated the premises with flare." The familiar voice said dauntingly behind her.

Her immediate reaction was to respond in her proficient mannerism as she did with all those who did not reserve a meeting. "Secure an appointment and return on that specified time, Mr. President." She said without any inflection or signs of distress, despite her pumping heart.

"I've already spoken with your superiors and they agreed that I was allowed to have a professional meeting with you." He said, and she could just imagine his quirked eyebrow.

"Thank you for being so chivalrous as to act as us mere mortals do, but it's unnecessary. Find someone else to speak with." She realized that she had stepped into her own trap by her idiotic wording.

"_Us _mere mortals? You and I may be such, but your little lover does not fit the category." He said swiftly, mastering the art of perfect delivery.

"I saw bits and pieces of your political debate yesterday, you are wonderful at twisting words, you should have worked on the John Kerry campaign." She snapped, resorting to petty references to failures in the presidency election to get her point across.

He circled around her in a way reminiscent to a predator and his prey, eyeing her with gleeful smugness. "You're rather inhospitable, Ms. Sullivan."

She spared him a pathetic glance. "Yeah, well, maybe you should have secured an appointment with _me, _instead of going over my head and resorting to use your great and wise presidential pull to influence those around you. Do you even remember me? You should have realized that doing so would only infuriate me." She said with scathing sarcasm.

At long last losing his cool, he spoke rather harshly. "What the hell do you expect when you wouldn't take my calls, or answer the door…"

"When you sent your _cronies _to my door and had your _secretaries _intimidate me with their idle threats, what'd you think I was going to do with all of that? With most guys you can just ignore them and hope that they give up, but with you and your infinite resources the only way I could breathe was to leave."

He rolled his eyes, "And take _Clark _with you, use your cousin's name as some sort of childhood security blanket. You _half _hoped that I would find you, at least half." He sounded near desperate, his strong hands reaching out as though begging to touch her.

"You wanted me to find you here, you want to hate and spite me for what I did to you."

Chloe stared at him head on, a blazing certainty reflected in her eyes. "_No._" She stated, and he stared at her in shock, as though expecting some long continuation of their conversation, some sort of spiel or speech on morals and her animosity. But he didn't deserve it.

"Now leave my fucking office before I call Clark back here. You're a bad person, Lex. You are your father's son and I want you to leave." Every word was a knife wound, stabbing into his side. She had pulled the _father _card, a card that everyone knew to use to silence him, but it was all in the delivery. Hers was admittedly flawless.

His eyes glass over, as though he were putting his mask back on once more. "Be careful, Chloe-" He winced when she winced. "You're treading on thin ice, and it is well within my power to expose Clark Kent for what he is." He said as a sort of warning, inclining his head before heading for the door.

"As what, a decent human being?" She called back, but he wouldn't take the bait. She dove back into her work, typing up a storm as her article became more and more scathing. She always wrote more to Symone's style when she was infuriated.

Clark stood outside the building, both feet planted on the ground, as he used his enhanced hearing and X-ray vision to eavesdrop on the conversation. Lex was more dangerous than ever, and for the first time he had no idea how to handle it. Casting one last look to Chloe, Clark sped away, leaving behind the mediocrity in a long trail of dust.

**I didn't get this beta-ed, but the first chapter to my new story/sequel to When It's Over? THEIR LAST is almost done and ready to be shipped off to my awesome beta, JadedNihilist.**


	8. The Dreaded Wheeze

FLASHBACK 

He corrected your grammar. He laughed obnoxiously. He wheezed like no man has wheezed before. His mouth moved in such a way that Chloe winced at the thought of those lips ever nearing hers. Why couldn't Superman protect her from a bad date?

She swirled the swizzle stick in her vanilla-caramel iced coffee, nodding despondently to every lame joke that he attempted to crack, while he _wheezed. _Oh the wheezing. Chloe wondered whether she could knock herself unconscious on the table, and whether her ill-humored 'date' would so much as take note long enough to cease his story of his early days as a tax lawyer.

"I graduated twenty-seventh in my class out of four-hundred eighty-nine, that puts me in the…eighteenth percentile, I think. I was in striking range of number twenty-five; the twenty-sixth was only point seven percent better than I was, it was so close. Like a swimming match, did you swim in high school?" She shook her head blandly, and he laughed again. Was there a reason? No, of course not.

He excused himself to the bathroom and Chloe took full advantage of whipping out her cell phone and paging Clark immediately. Who cared if a city in Istanbul was in jeopardy when she was minutes from committing a double homicide/suicide? The phone rang for a few moments before Clark picked it up. She could tell he was irritated.

"What is it, Chloe?" He asked, yawning. It wasn't even nine o'clock and he had already hit the sheets, metaphorically.

"God, Clark, I didn't think I'd say this since I was seventeen…I need you!" He paused, deciphering whether or not she was truly sincere or mocking.

Something changed in his tone and she detected concern that would have sent her heart a-flutter three years before. "What is it? Are you alright?" She explained her current situation.

"He's an absolute nightmare and I'm contemplating suicide. But I can't get out of here; he's my boss's cousin and I can't just leave without just cause." If she were to be quite honest she would have admitted that the only reason she allowed herself to be set up was to silently spite Lex.

Clark hung up the phone quickly, and she was left to wonder how long she would be forced to flounder for. Her prayers were answered in mere moments. Her date returned from the lavatory, joking that he hadn't washed his hands and pushing his sticky and (hopefully) soap-covered hands in her face, giggling in a way most reminiscent to Lana.

Clark pushed the revolving door open, dressed in what appeared to be his pajamas, and approached the table most menacingly. Chloe wondered how he pinpointed her location, but realized that he was Superman. He could do all things through Jor-El who strengthened him.

"Chloe, what are you doing here with _that _guy?" _Oh no. _Chloe thought to herself. _He's going to take that tactic._ She didn't have to feign the blush that arose to her cheeks at his well-acted disgruntlement that did terrifyingly resemble that of Lex and his petty jealousies.

"We're just hanging out." She said innocently, fighting an embarrassed smile of mortification. Clark's eyes darkened and for a moment she feared that he would accidentally melt her poor date. It wouldn't be _such _a loss.

"You get back home, right now! I'm not going to stand for this, does our relationship mean nothing?" She could tell that he was trying very hard to not laugh at his own ridiculousness. He stepped forward, swiping Chloe's iced coffee onto the table, the russet liquid splattering across the table and several ice cubes landed on her date's lap.

Chloe cast Mr. Wrong a discomfited glance before standing. "I'm sorry, I had a wonderful time." She said before turning to walk off with Clark. Her date looked as though, despite his recent bathroom break, he had just soiled himself.

The pair waited until they were out of earshot of the café before breaking down into peals of laughter, nearly collapsing onto the pavement. Chloe was the first to regain her ability to speak. "My…GOD…Clark, oh, you could've just come and told him that my cat died or that Great Aunt Mildred was…undergoing a sex change, or something!" Clark didn't seem to be deeply affected by her words.

"Did you see the guy's face, Chlo? Ha, that was priceless. I think if we stayed behind for a little longer the guy would have cried, want me to go back and check?" Before he could go into super speed Chloe grabbed hold of his sleeve.

"No, but I think it's safe to say that no one's going to ever ask me out when they hear that little nightmare story. I still wish you stuck with the cat…or sex change, whatever."

"I could've told him you weren't really born a girl…" He said thoughtfully, his lips curling into a devilish smile, as though intrigued by the thought. She swatted his arm, but laughed nonetheless.

On a more serious note, she added, "I was minutes away from calling Lex to be my knight in shining armor, thank god you picked up." She told him in a manner that perfectly depicted their situation. She neither swooned nor acted with embitterment, though the smile on her face did not quite reach her eyes.

"Don't thank God, thank my phone reception. Usually it doesn't work in my apartment." She colored slightly, realizing that he was still a bit sore about being awoken.

"I thought you were out, fighting bad guys and romancing foreign girls, something you could take a break from in order to save your best friend from the worst possible dating experience of her life." At this ignorant statement Clark quirked a doubtful eyebrow.

"And what about those dates of yours that often ended in attempted murder?" She was completely unabashed.

"Well, this one would have if you had not come to rescue me from the wheezing villain. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to date again." She said with a dramatic sigh, her small and pale hand flying to her forehead mockingly.

Clark became a bit uncomfortable at her opening to the subject matter. "Not everyone is going to be a bald billionaire with an unhealthy obsession with you." Clark stated in his 'hate-to-break-it-to-you' manner that stopped Chloe from becoming indignant.

"I don't want that, Clark. He and I are taking a break _because _he can't trust me and I can't really trust him. It has to go both ways-" As though on cue her cell-phone sounded, Remy-Zeroes _Save Me _ringing throughout the air. Upon her blush Clark immediately knew who the mysterious caller was. She hesitated before pocketing it, turning the phone on the vibrate option. It buzzed once more.

"You'd better get that. He'll send out the SWAT team if you don't pick up." Clark stated unenthusiastically, though Chloe hardly seemed eager to speak with him.

"Hello?" Sometimes you must do the necessary.

"Chloe?" He barked loudly and she winced in reply.

"No, it's Jenna, her lover. Want to leave a message?" Clark did not even need to employ his miraculous hearing to observe their conversation.

"Not funny, Chloe. I've been worried sick, I just stopped by the coffee shop you were at." She was entirely unsurprised.

"Intel not as accurate as usual? And you should watch the worrying, you don't want to suffer from premature baldness."

He ignored this blatant jab. "Where are you, I've called twice. Are you at someone's apartment, are you with someone?"

She sighed, turning her back to Clark on reflex. "Oh, are we playing twenty questions? Is it smaller than a breadbox?" She could practically hear his teeth grind.

"Where are you?"

She waved a finger at the imaginary Lex. "Nah uh, no repeats." Knowing that he did not find this funny, she humored him. "I'm walking with Clark, he bailed me out of a disastrous blind date." He was silent for a moment, as though it were a dignified pause.

"You could have called me, Chloe. I was in the area." She did not even want to know what he was doing in said area; she was used to his vague replies.

"It's alright, he was too." She lied, casting him a nervous glance.

"That close?" She did not like the question and was thankful that it was he who changed the topic. "I've got a trace on this call, one of the perks of my limousine, I'm coming to pick you up."

The idea of a warm environment was inviting, but she was not about to surrender without a decent fight. "No, I think I'll walk. Clark and I've got to catch up, anyway." If she were looking Chloe would have seen her partner roll his eyes dramatically.

"He can come too." He stated obtusely, as though it pained him to offer. On cue the sleek limousine glided up beside them, the polished door sliding open. "Come in, Chloe." She recognized his voice and the hostility in it, though she could not see him through the darkness.

She deliberately took Clark's hand and guided him, as though he did not realize which end to enter through. She could imagine his eyes narrow. When the door shut everything came into sharp contrast, and she was relieved that there were no business colleagues littered about.

Lex observed her wardrobe condescendingly, glancing upon the cheap and expertly torn jeans and fluffy pink jacket with pursed lips. "It's freezing out and you're dressed like _this?" _He turned to Clark, even more astounded. He had the grace to blush.

"You don't need a bodyguard, if that's what you are afraid of." Lex commented snidely, thinking for a moment before adding, "And if you did I could provide you with one." Clark did not seem to take this offhanded jab to heart.

"I dunno, I've watched far too many Lifetime movies to underestimate a shady billionaire. Shannen Doherty's folly will not be mine." She mused, recalling the movie with blurred clarity.

Lex did not seem amused, though she swore that a ghost of a smile had played upon his lips for at least a split second. "My man will drop _mister _Kent off. You and I need to talk." _Famous last words._

**The next chapter will most likely be a continuation of this.**


	9. Offer You Can't Refuse

**LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, WOOT! What better way to celebrate than to update? **

Clark was reluctant to vacate the vehicle but was forced to do so after much urging. Giving Chloe his infamous 'I'll be listening' look he departed, the well-polished door slamming as soon as he was out of harm's way.

Chloe knew Lex well enough to know that he was wallowing, waiting until she made the first move before he entirely exploded. She would not give him the satisfaction of this conquest and simply sipped her mimosa casually, refusing to let her own insecurities shine through her brave façade.

Lex was none to be trifled with and maintained this uncomfortable silence for nearly six miles before speaking. "Did you see the press conference?" He asked in such a pleasant way that Chloe was caught off guard.

She shook her head, feeling as though she had devolved three thousand years. "Um, no. I was out tonight." She replied cautiously.

"The campaign is earning a lot of support from Tennessee and Arkansas. The governors are supporting us full heartedly and at least nine of the local newspapers have run articles on my…humanitarianism." The sarcasm was noted and quickly discarded.

"You forgot Connecticut. Those idiots are drooling over you." She reminded him, hiding the growing smile that was creeping on her face. His expression did not change, though she knew that it was taking great effort on his part to make it so. Several of the former politicians had supported him, thought he current governor was an old acquaintance of his father, which naturally meant that he hated Lex's guts.

"Do you like making me irritated, Chloe?" He questioned, his tone striving to sound uncaring though the undertones shone through.

"It's my third favorite hobby behind writing and sleeping." She informed him promptly, offering him a mock smile before turning back to her drink disinterestedly. He scowled deeply, a line creasing his forehead as he tried- and failed – to remain calm.

"I…don't understand." He said slowly, attempting to force level headedness on himself before starting the inevitable argument that would result in more than just bruised egos, he could guarantee it.

She glanced at him heedlessly, taking the orange slice from the edge of the glass and biting off the fruit. "I'll try to enlighten you, better keep up." She informed him discourteously, calm on the surface but clearly readying herself for a fight. "I don't trust what you're doing, Lex. I don't understand but I do get that whatever it is you're trying to keep it all under wraps, pass off this business of yours as some sort of charitable event. If you get what you want, and now it's seeming more and more likely, I have no idea what will happen to all of us." She replied honestly. Chloe had no reason to lie to him, and he would indefinitely see through any attempt she would harbor to keep her concerns secret.

Lex leaned over to her, enclosing her shaking hands in his. She did not fight this quite welcome gesture, but refused to give in entirely. "You can trust me, I'm not going to hurt you." She looked up at him in astonishment, though she did not pull away.

"It's not me I'm scared for." She stated sadly, staring pointedly out the tinted window and at his billboard. He squeezed her tightly but said nothing in rebuttal, watching the highway slip out from underneath them.

He did the smartest thing possible and quickly changed the subject, concealing his own dumbfounded expression with a handkerchief, as he pulled away and coughed. "Where were you tonight?" He repeated the previous inquiry unassumingly and without the original territorial hostility.

This and this alone prompted a reply, "I told you I was out on a blind date, though by the end of it I wished that I'd blinded myself with a swizzle stick. Clark rescued me." He bristled at this, or was he stewing? Chloe could never quite tell.

"Is the idiot in a body bag, or did Clark go easy on him?" It was her time to take umbrage, though she could not do so visibly. As he refilled her glass she attempted to come up with a calm and collected answer. He was currently as blissfully unaware of Clark's, er, extra-human abilities, though he was not without suspicion.

"Um, no, he's fine, maybe he soiled himself but that's all." She stated a bit too quickly, her age-old motor mouth working its impeccable magic again. She often wondered whether or not she was simply an incredibly paranoid person or if he was just trying to work some sort of confession out of her. Seeing as he dropped the subject she considered it to be the former.

"Sometimes I worry about your stubbornness. It'll be your downfall." He warned her, and as usual she took it with a grain of salt.

"Oh, and I always thought that my weakness for bald politicians would be the end of me." She mused derisively, not sure if she wanted to hurt or amuse him. She seemed to have succeeded with effecting the latter.

"I really have missed you, Sullivan." It was a sort of comfort as he referred to her by her surname, a sort of reassurance. She knew where she stood with him when he called her Sullivan, while Chloe was uncharted territory.

She quirked an eyebrow before responding, "You haven't given me a chance to miss you with all of your calls and constant media appearances." That was the problem with getting over a worldwide personality, every time the thought of him did not bring her pain he somehow ended up on the eight o'clock news. For a while she had given up on television, but the radio and newspapers could always be counted on. He was inescapable.

"When you're popular," He joked, stiffening in surprise as she leaned back on him and took a swig from her newly refilled beverage. "Why Chloe-" it was back again, "Sullivan-" ah, that was better, "I didn't know that you were a cheap drunk." He relaxed, massaging circles into her arm.

She laughed slightly, quickly realizing the ridiculousness in this notion. There was barely any alcohol in these things; she could down five without feeling the least bit tipsy. "No, I'm not." And she planted her lips on his, forgetting for an instant the likelihood of Clark staring in on this and watching the two of them.

It felt so right, perfect, the sort of kiss that you see in all of the lame movies that made everything right, and briefly made the receiver forget all of the problems that revolved around this certain relationship. But that didn't matter; they melted together.

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"That's Our Country!" The headline blared, a photograph of the infamous President Luthor aside the three page long article on America's newest acquisition…another South American country, another piece of property that did not belong to the United States.

"I swear to God, he's putting us backward two and a half centuries." She muttered, not even realizing that Clark was looming in the doorway. He was becoming increasingly better at appearing silently, lingering in darkness and watching Chloe without her knowledge. The hair on the back of her neck rose to needle-sharp heights, warning her instantaneously of his presence.

"I take it you've heard the news." He said darkly, shadows contrasting his usually chipper traits. Despite her 'spider-sense' she still jumped slightly at the sound of his voice and twirled around stiffly.

She mumbled briefly before regaining her countenance. "If I lived in a bunker with no contact from the outside world I would have heard the news. Look, it's everywhere!" She exclaimed, frantically gesturing out her window to the opportunely placed newspaper stand.

"Symone wants to see you." It was no great mystery why, though she was certain that no matter what she had to say Chloe did not want to hear it.

"Tell her I've just fallen out the window and I'll be back later." She was unbelievably jittery, her hands shaking. She was able to still them on command now that she was no longer caffeine dependent. Her shoulder stiffened as Clark's hand gently touched her, an effort of consoling.

"It's alright, Chlo. Don't worry so much." But she couldn't help it. Her ex-boyfriend was president of the United States of America, and unlike most great men he refused to forget her and move onto trophy wife number one…well, more like two, if you counted pheromone girl. She believed that he was the first unmarried president ever, but felt no great inclination to investigate this matter. The more she ignored the undeniable truth of his reentry into her life, the better.

As though Symone was aware of her ignore-and-conquer plan, her buzzer sounded most unpleasantly. "Sullivan!" She barked, and Chloe did not dare to ignore her.

"Yes, Symone?" It was a song and dance ritual that was necessary to retain one's sanity. She would be polite and Mrs. Editor-in-Chief would be rude and test her patience while Chloe would be forced to grit her teeth and bear it.

What her darling little boss informed her of next nearly knocked dear Chloe into the next century. "There is someone here to speak with you, I'm not sure if it's for an interview or not but she simply insists." It was the 'she' that threw her off. Any of her very few female friends simply would have called her cell or even land line, if they didn't know her very well.

"Who…is it?" She asked hesitantly, glancing up at Clark only to find that he was entirely disinterested in the entire subject matter, flexing Chloe's stress ball playfully.

"Lana Lang, I believe." The room exploded with flour as none other than the heart breaker extraordinaire knocked tentatively upon the door.

**Slight cliffie, I was celebrating my last day of school by posting! **


	10. The Reporter vs The Model

**I'm back...for now.**

Chloe visibly flinched as a plate flew through the air and shattered mere inches away from her head. "Thank you for that, Clark." She stated wryly, crossing her arms tiredly and limping away, ignoring the fragments of china littered across the expensive wooden floors. Clark blushed deeply, going super-speed and picking up the trash in the blink of an eye.

"Sorry, I was practicing." In her apartment, of course, throwing the plates and attempting to cause them to explode using heat vision. It took less than an instant for her to realize that he was using her china...lovely. She knew that he had been watching the two of them in Lex's limo, going at in like horny high schoolers. Offhand, passive-agressive confrontation was the only thing that seemed to ease the sting of disproval.

"I know your upset...disappointed, but Clark, that's no reason to take your anger out on my possessions." She warned him, knowing the sullen pretty-boy grimace that graced his face all too well. Sometimes it was a disadvantage to be so well-acquainted with another, making it entirely impossible to not believe ill conceived lies they concocted as a way to protect you.

"I'm not upset." He replied almost convincingly, but for all the reasons listed above she could not believe this brave admission. "You and Lex...are pretty good together. He treats you...well, and both of you are trying to take on the world." She nodded, not in agreement but just to signify that she was paying attention. He continued, nonetheless, "Though you use the phrase metaphorically, while Lex is...Lex. He won't stop until he controls everything, and everyone." This scathing comment bruised her, the pain sharpened by his pointed glare.

She smiled without any sort of amusement, "That may be so, but you should know that he's _never _going to control me." She stated boldly, believing every last word with every fiber in her being.

"That won't stop him from trying, now, will it?" rhetoric question, but she answered it nonetheless.

"He can try all he wants, but when I'm resolved it's pretty hard to break me. You're basically the only thing I ever gave up on, romantically, of course." She stuttered, avoiding eye contact as his own glowing orbs pierced hers. "Too busy being madly in love with Ms. Lang, a trait many of my consorts seem to share." She said reminiscently, ignoring Clark's look of blatant alarm.

"I just don't think he's good enough for you, is all. I know that he _loves _you, but sometimes it takes more than that to make something work." The irony was not lost on Chloe, she had similar thoughts concerning Lana and Clark in the early and later years.

The pair maintained their distance, though eye contact seemed to make them seem nearly on top of each other. "Don't worry, Clark, I don't need a superman right now, if it works it works if not..." She trailed off purposefully, wondering what would happen if the two went their separate ways, it was not in Lex's character to simply forget her, though he did his best with Lana.

"Okay, but I don't trust him," to state the obvious. "I'll be keeping an eye on you," he promised, taking a running start before soaring out of her gaping skylight, Lex had done more than a few improvements to the place. "And sorry about the plates!" He shouted, his voice barely tangible.

Chloe looked up at his retreating figure and sighed, collapsing onto her couch with total exhaustion. "Show off," she muttered, pressing her palm to her forehead to fight the growing headache.

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Lana looked utterly confused, but gorgeously so. Her professionally trimmed chocolate hair framed her beautiful almond shaped eyes, which peered around the office in confusion, fixing on an individual flour particle that drifted slowly to the ground with more attention than necessary. Clark would have super-sped away, but his alarm delayed his reaction. She looked the part of a model/ingenue, her modest clothing draped over a nearly perfect figure.

"Lana?" Chloe was no good at concealing her shock and entirely negative reaction to her appearance. "What the hell are you doing here?" The girl blushed deeply, lifting a manicured hand to cover her cheeks embarrassedly.

Even her deer-in-the-headlights expression portrayed the utmost beauty, something that annoyed and incurred jealousy from Chloe. "I'm sorry, I just got in from Paris a few days ago and I was reading the newspaper." She stated obtusely, her eyes falling on Clark and turning away quickly. "I think that we should talk."

Chloe frowned slightly before speaking, "and what was it that we were doing before?" She asked, appreciated the 'cough' that came from Clark immediately. Lane glanced toward him briefly, before staring at the object of her address pleadingly.

"Alone?" Clark took the not-so-subtle hint and paced toward the door, taking the remnants of a stress ball along with him. He smiled encouragingly at Chloe and fought a scowl as he brushed past Lana.

"Rather bristly, isn't he?" The model commented the moment the door was closed, though Chloe did not feel secure. He could be listening without even troubling himself, perhaps in his own office and still observing their conversation.

"Well, you showing up was unexpected." _To say the least, _but she kept that last thought to herself. "i haven't seen you in a long time, would a phone call have killed you?" Lana gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes without pretense.

"You weren't exactly fighting to keep our friendship afloat, now, were you? You made your choice with Clark, and I can understand that, you always had a thing for him, and now I can see that it's not one-sided anymore." Lana informed her angrily, refusing to take note of Chloe's confusion.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked to no avail, this was not the reason for Lana's 'visit.'

"I'm not here to argue with you about all of this, we're getting older, Chloe, these high school shenanigans are pointless." Oh, so she was taking the higher ground now?

Chloe's eyebrows disappeared into her blond bangs, her eyes widening in surprise. "_I'm _the one who's engaging in these 'high school shenanigans', please, Lana, you're the queen of over dramatic games. Your entire 'will they-won't they?' thing got old after like one year, and you were the one who played it out until there was no chance that the two of you would ever even be friends again. And after all of that, you pounce on Clark's ex-friend right after you break up? If anyone needs maturing, it's you." She snarled mercilessly.

Lana gaped at her and Chloe wondered why her tongue didn't just flop out and roll onto the ground, just like in the cartoons. "I...I..." She stuttered, and Chloe gave her the chance to retaliate. "All of this, this was messed up. It shouldn't have went the way it did, but it did. I can't go back in time." She pleaded, and the reporter was disappointed. She had expected something a bit more convincing.

"I'm not going to pretend that this is a happy reunion, so just cut to the chase and explain why it is that you've found it fit to appear out of no where and intrude on my life, yet again." She knew how harsh this was, and that Lana did not necessarily deserve such treatment, but her bad mood had managed to ripple past her uncaring demeanor and into years of bitterness.

Lana understood this, and humbled herself just a bit. "I've heard about you and Lex, Chloe. Or, at least what _used _to be you and Lex." She plucked at her necklace nervously, biting her bottom lip, silently debating whether or not she should speak. The lack of interruption seemed to signify that Chloe cared not if she continued. "He's...not good. I know, I know, it sounds incredibly moronic and you already know that, but there's more to it than that."

Chloe finally decided to speak, her eyebrows knitted together. "What are you saying? You should know better than anyone else that I'm not at the sidelines with an orange foam finger, waving him on. He's not the president, he's a dictator." None of this seemed to affect Lana.

"There's more to it than you think, you've got to know by now that he wants to take over the world." The blatant stare was all the answer that was necessary. "But he doesn't just want that...he wants to _destroy it._" And the sound of a heavy fall in the room over along with the stare of placid terror seemed to be all that was necessary to illustrate her point. That Lana always had a penchant for the dramatic.

**tell me what you think.**


	11. The First Morning

**This has taken me forever, and I am quite sorry. I just reread what I wrote and was surprised to find that I'm actually satisfied with it and wish to continue! I hope I don't disappoint!**

**FLASHBACK**: _The first morning_

Her apartment reeked of old Chinese food and sweat, not exactly the most scrumptious combination ever devised. Chloe longed to cling to this moment, the instant of pre-consciousness and post-coital that combined into a silk-laden euphoria. She still paused before shifting, listening to the steady and loud sound of Lex's breath, his bare chest pressing into the coils of her mattress.

The shades were drawn almost tackily, the sort of tight and paranoid blinds meant to censure the affairs of a married man in a seedy motel. She got a cheap thrill from the dirty darkness, the sort of situation a 50's detective awoke to in the movies, with their number 1 gals sprawled across the bed in an accidentally-perfect position. As the thought flickered, he snored.

It took a whole thirty seconds for her to realize that she left her pants in the kitchen and that her socks were wedged beneath the sheets...she didn't comprehend why. Sunday morning, even Clark must have still been slumbering, dreams of grandeur dancing in his wee little head.

Chloe was still reliant on her caffeine, she had yet to weigh the good versus the bad of large amounts of coffee consumption, and chose to ignore the havoc it wreaked on her body. Her mug was filled, emptied, and then refilled before Lex chose to grace her with his overpowering presence, silently vetoing her coffee offering before resigning himself to drinking directly from the milk carton.

"That's hygienic," she commented, wincing as he capped the carton and revealed the fantastic milk mustache that had formed on his upper lip. "Hmm...so that's what you'd look like with facial hair. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

He smiled...that stupid sort of slow smile that made her temporarily forget why she was so dead set against being with him. It made you momentarily think that he was just a normal, dashing bald man- no strings attached. Lex took a bold step forward, reaching for her shoulder and swooping in for the dreadfully romantic first kiss of the day.

"I taste like old eggs," she warned, but it was lost on him. The tricky bastard had already used enough mouthmash to decimate his as well as her morning breath and chase away any irrational fear of revolting him...how funny how times changed, how at one time she worried if she liked him more than he liked her, if she was just a filler girl, the semi-colon before the actual sentence.

Chloe didn't want to be the following act to Lana Lang, the intermission, like every other girl seemed to be to Clark in high school and even beyond. All rational thought melted as his arms went around her shoulders and she was hoisted onto her own countertop, like she had seen before in the movies. It was thrilling, she couldn't deny it, and it would have been perfect if Clark had not had a key to her apartment, and if her damn door hadn't been so well oiled.

Her shoulders were against the cabinet and legs locked around her special someone's waist as Clark made his presence known with a sound that was a cross between a squeal, moan and wail of despair. Lex looked up like a guilty teenager caught with his pants down, releasing his girl quickly and backing away, instantly revealing her clothed state.

"Oh, God, Clark..." She fully expected him to retreat in embarassment, shielding his eyes reminiscent to a brother who realizes his little sister isn't so little anymore. But he stayed rooted to the spot, intense eyes examining Lex's face countless times before allowing it to entire his psyche that he was, in fact, the future Governor Luthor.

"I should've knocked."

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**PRESENT DAY**

Chloe felt her jaw hit the ground. She knew it wasn't possible and that her love of the Looney Tunes had finally turned her into one, but she would swear on the Wall of Weird that the carpet was currently cushioning her chin.

"What?" The 't' was lost and all emphasis was focused on the yippy 'whah?' that had escaped her vocals before she could exercise any and all of her self control. Lana's cheeks flushed and her dark eyes darted to the ground, a nervous junior-year Lana Lang that Chloe had not seen for so long.

"I know how it sounds, Chlo-" The endearing nickname did not fit, too many years had passed since they were even remotely friendly for her to lapse into adorable epithets just yet.

"You broke up with him because he was a sneaky terrorist, and to get over your despair you became Revlon's spokesmodel?" The sarcasm was beyond blatant, it went and bit the bristled Lana straight on the nose.

"Think what you want about me, but you know about Lex. I don't know what faux-pas he committed to fall out of _your _grace, but my business is my own." Chloe had the distinct feeling that Lana would have spilled all the gory little details about her relations with the President if she could have incurred any sort of interest from the blondie reporter, and this was her version of a grown-up tantrum.

"I _severely _disagree with his course of action, and how he acts the same in politics as he does in his social life, but I'm pretty sure that Lex isn't charming the world just to nuke it." Chloe expressed more certainty than she felt, wondering all the while _why _Lex would make his intentions of world-domination to the waif before her.

Lana set her jaw, crossing her toned arms across her chest defiantly before dipping into her Kate Spade for a slip of paper. "I know you Chloe, no matter how much you'd like to pretend that I don't." Chloe silently disagreed, but said nothing. "I don't know much about all these politics, but we both know what Lex is about. He won't be content taking little bits at a time, only borrowing. Since when has he been a fan of sharing? I found this accidentally, and it's taken me really long to make heads or tails of this. Maybe you can." The receipt-sized parchment was rather anti-climactic, Chloe was half-expecting to be given a folder labeled TOP SECRET.

"I'll do what I can." Sullivan stated begrudgingly, accepting the makeshif olive-branch without enthusiasm. Lana turned, even her retreat the epitome of femininity and beauty. _Do they even need to airbrush her? _Chloe wondered not wholly without jealousy.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Chlo. I hope we can still be friends." The model said over her shoulder before disappearing from sight for what Chloe silently believed to be one of the last times. Any negative feelings were currently neutral toward the chestnut-eyed 'angel' who captivated Clark so long ago. She knew any chance of friendship was over, they were to remain indifferent acquaintances for the rest of eternity. And sadly, Chloe just didn't care.

**Please tell me, what do you think? sry it's been so long, I feel terribly unreliable, but I would really appreciate feedback.**


	12. Burning Questions

**I'm going to try really hard to be more responsible for updating stories I actually like, and I want to thank those who reviewed the previous chapters, the reviews help keep me going, as I'm sure everyone says. I'm taking some suggestions in mind, and if you made them then I hope that you can see them incorporated! I know that I tend to jump around to different parts of their relationship, but I think it's funner than dwelling on things chronologically.**

**FLASHBACK**:

"Clark, you need velcro or something." Chloe sighed ineffectually as she tossed another torn and ratty shirt aside, only mildly amused by Clark's bashfulness.

"I'm not a stripper, Chlo, I can...I don't know, replace my buttons?" She made no effort to conceal the dramatized eye rolling she had perfected over the years.

"It's going to be quite a chore to sew on your buttons and mend the rips after you tear your clothes off and fly into action." She reminded him reasonably, but he was not dissuaded.

Clark's shrug resembled a twitch as he stared at his wardrobe, searching for some sort of answer. "Someone's bound to notice me sprinting off every time there's bad news, somebody's going to recognize me eventually." He admitted fretfully, his knitted eyebrows and intense expression not exactly what Chloe admired most about her favorite hero.

"Yeah...how about a mask? Like Spidey, or Batman?" She asked hesitantly, glancing at the fabrics before them without certainty. His snort and sarcastic smile was enough of a response. At the end of her rope, Chloe threw her arms into the air, "well, if you have any brighter ideas, just go ahead and tell me." He grew silent and brooding, his most popular mood of the month.

They rarely discussed her new relationship unless immediately before them, and though Lex's jealous tendencies tended to discourage private meanings, but Chloe would be damned if she was about to let her boyfriend dictate her life.

"I dunno, a fake nose, wig, hair gel...glasses?" Chloe snorted at the latter suggestions, bringing a hesitant smile to Clark's face.

"Yeah, like you'd be a master of disguise with a pair of glasses and your hair slicked back, I'm more for the Cyrano De Bergerac suggestion, but I dunno what kind of prosthetics would withstand high wind speed." She added reluctantly, not wishing to discourage. It was far too easy to do these days, he lost confidence far too quickly than he used to, fell prey to criticism without much pressing and collapsed into moody fits of temperament.

He appeared, to Chloe's relief, unmoved by the dismissal of yet another plan of concealing his identity. Tired from the brainstorming, she was glad to see that the necessary twenty-five minutes had passed since they called in an order at her favorite Chinese place, though she did so a bit blushingly. Lately she had begun to relate takeout with sex, not that she admitted this to a clueless Clark who seemed all too happy to divulge in General Tso's and egg rolls.

As though reading her mind, he nodded briskly and came to his feet. "I'll pick up the order, I'll be back in a minute." It was rather funny how literal this time prediction was, and before she could so much as nod he was gone.

"You never get used to that," She muttered, testing wool for endurance and glancing wistfully at the velcro, convinced that it was a good idea. In the silence of solitude she could hear the dim buzzing of her cell phone, and she mentally kicked herself for forgetting to take it off of vibrate.

"Hello?" She said, and from the terse and evidently unpleasant silence she correctly guessed the person on the other line. "Lex? What is it." He appeared to either be gathering his thoughts or seething, and neither did much for her mood.

"I've been calling for a while, why haven't you been picking up?" He asked cautiously, evidently controlling his voice and the suspicion that accompanied it.

"Clark's over, we've been brainstorming for his economics class." She invented wildly, pleased with how honest she sounded. "The phone was on vibrate, you could've called my landline." He considered this for a moment and seemed to relent.

"Alright, want me to come over?" He knew the answer and really did not care to face Clark, especially seeing as their new predicament demanded that he was at least mildly civil.

"No, that's all right. Did you want something?" She didn't enjoy the incessant beating of her heart and the guilt that washed over her, as though she had a reason to feel in the wrong for innocently helping Clark...even if they were not 'brainstorming' over what she claimed.

There was a puzzled silence before he responded, "Yes, I was wondering whether you would like to join me for dinner with a few political bores next Saturday, can I count on you?" The question was mildly insulting for no reason that she could identify, but she frowned nonetheless.

"Sure, I mean, do I need to put on my little red dress?" She questioned naughtily, hoping that this would mend whatever it was that seemed to be wrong. His muteness embarrassed her, made her feel cheap, but she couldn't take it back.

"That's better for taking off than putting on." He responded, voice somewhat back to normal. She was acutely aware of Clark standing mere yards behind her, laying the offering of greasy takeout onto the counter and disregarding their clothing experiment for the moment. She had the feeling he was super-eavesdropping and a stranger feeling that she just did not care.

"Next time you stop by I'll model it for you, but I've got to go. My wanton soup is getting cold." She felt filthy, but it was the only way to appease his 'moods', and it wasn't worth getting into another explosive argument about the neutrality of the Clark and Chloe friendship.

"I've got to meet with a client, I'll call you later." That instant she knew that he was with someone, a work colleague, and wished to display dominance, the macho bullshit about who calls and who ends the conversation, and a pang of annoyance struck a nerve that she would prefer stay inanimate.

Chloe turned to Clark and smiled, facing their mediocre meal with less enthusiasm than she normally would, and he was kind enough to pretend that he didn't notice. No decisions were made about costumes, other than to leave the pork fried rice alone after sampling it and feeling gravely ill, but a rather important one was made regarding a clueless Chloe.

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**PRESENT DAY**

Khakis allowed such freedom that even Chloe, in throes of an awful mood, could not fail to appreciate. The lovely feeling of being able to kick her feet up onto her desk unabashedly and without any sort of reservations brightened even the most tedious day. She had time and time again attempted mastering the art of typing with her toes, but had yet to do so to any varying degree of success, and was trying the impossible yet again when Symone found fit to visit her in the office.

"Sullivan, what in god's name are you doing?" She barked, so entirely in character that Chloe's shoulders did not so much as tense at the resonating judgment echoing in every word her editor bellowed.

She knew well enough to not answer this with an innocent 'nothing,' knowing that it would do nothing put incur the wrath of the viper before her, already preparing to sink her fangs into the hapless reporter before her. Luckily for Chloe, Symone was not looking for a response.

"Heard Lana Lang stopped by, since when are you in the habit of entertaining the rich and famous?" The stiffness of her voice indicated jealousy, and Chloe could not help but marvel at why she would wish to be in her predicament.

"She's a high school...acquaintance. Annoying cheerleader type, just wanted to rehash the past." Chloe said dully, surprised at how minimally she was deviating from the truth. "She wasn't interested in a story." She added abruptly, certain that this was what Symone was sniffing for. She blinked in confusion, indicating otherwise. Maybe she was not such a good predictor of character after all.

"We don't want an article on her type anyway, I'm not running a tabloid." She sniffed, surpassing Chloe's expectation of her decorum and giving her a guilty little trill of happiness that not everyone fell helpless to the model's charms. "I just remember her previous...and publicized...relationship with our President. Recall any of that wish wash a few years ago?" Chloe could have laughed at the question if she did not so greatly desire to keep up appearances. Lana had been what she thought she must live up to, with unbelievably petite shoes that she had felt reluctant to squeeze into.

"Yeah, I think I remember something about that." It had been part of Lang's growing success as international waif that had brought forth so much coverage on her and Lex's relations in the early stages, though the press waned soon after. There had been more important things to cover than a politician's tryst with some exotic beauty.

This had been one of those things that mildly surprised Chloe, how nearly all of Lex's lobotomized ladies tended to make eighth or ninth page once or twice during the span of their relationship, and her name was never printed. It was a relief that he had denounced playboy and had already embraced government and politics and lost the interest of the tabloids. It was a relief to not forever have her name besmirched by her past relations with the present President. She would never be taken serious again.

"The Internet is a bit slow today, thought I'd drop off your article. Needs serious revisions, if you don't mind my saying so." She did, but thought it best to swallow her pride and accept the stapled essay, red marker bleeding through the pages. "Needs to be brief, not seven pages." Symone stated airily, hawk eyes traveling around the room and nosily searching for any personal possession. Fortunately, Chloe kept none in her office.

It took Chloe a moment to realize that this was her lame attempt at small-talk, creating rapport. She had never expected this, it was not her style to try and 'buddy up' with employees. Even when it was necessary to get her cooperation in order to gain an interview with the President she refused to get down from her high horse in order to force her hand. What could possibly be more important than that and necessitate uncharacteristic ass-kissing?

"Yes, of course." Chloe attempted to keep a stern poker face and felt as though her eyes were giving her away, but luckily her boss seemed more absorbed in her surroundings than her employee.

"There have been strange reports, Sullivan. They seem right up your alley." The strange hesitance in Symone's voice did not suit the woman Chloe had grown to know and fear. This captured her utmost attention, despite her resolve to stay dutifully uninvolved.

"About what?" Her mind raced quickly. Was Lana right? Did Lex finally step into something incriminating? The excitement pulsed through her veins with alarming speed that it felt like the sort of jolt one receives after successfully outrunning a cheetah.

The real reason behind her needlessly traveling throughout the office to deliver her little message when she had many willing minions (Janis and Sanders for example) to do so for her lurched on the tip of her tongue, and Chloe was loath to admit that she was fascinated..."This man who goes around helping stop international problems...there have been eyewitness accounts, but nothing solid on video yet. No one's really all that certain if it's a hoax or not...he's been around the planet, allegedly, but how can he get to different continents faster than any jet known to man? You've heard of this, right?" The eagerness in Symone's voice convinced an uneasy Chloe that there was more to come, a dramatic finale.

She merely nodded, mouth dry and concerns for Clark and his identity whirring through her mind. In Ecuador his escapades had been documented, as well as Tahiti and even Los Angeles. He had been able to avoid most news spectacles, and if Symone were to change this...she couldn't even bring herself to think of that. Lex himself had said previously that the collective governments were not interested in leaking this bit of supernatural intel.

Symone did not seem to note that Chloe was wrapped up in her own thought process, and continued to speak in a soft, personal tone that begged for implicit affinity. "They're even starting to say that, that this super man can fly."

**I dunno how I feel about this chapter as a whole, I think that I like it, but any criticisms are welcome.**


	13. Reservations of the Acutest Kind

**NEXT CHAPPIE!!**

It was rather fortunate that early on in life Lex had shed every ounce of hair atop his head, or else the stress of his Presidency would have indefinitely caused baldness. Shoulders hunched and eyes bleary, he wanted nothing more than to melt into his covers and fall into a coma for the next three to six weeks, but suspected that this would not be advisable.

He was fortunate that many of his 'lackeys' assigned to him via his father had followed him to the White House, making the vetoing and approving of countless bills and policies somewhat more sufferable, though he would not go as far as to say that he enjoyed the monotony.

His bleak exhaustion spanned to no end, though he doubted that it was nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't cure. "Mister President?" He appreciated the sound quality of the man who loomed in his doorway, no weakness or pathetic uncertainty that did nothing more than irritate him.

Lex turned blankly, eyes fixing on his head of security and immediately hoping for news of a positive nature. "Yes, Bernard?" The brisk sharpness of his tone was to be expected from a man teetering on the edge.

"I had a man observing the goings on at The Daily Planet, and he believed that you would wish to be informed that a Miss Lana Lang recently stopped by." The words were anticlimactic, Bernard did not seem to grasp the gravity and unpleasantness of the situation.

"Oh?" He massaged circles into his scalp, his head suddenly throbbing, anxiety creeping upon him like cancer.

"Yes, would you like me to get the tape for you?" The President sat up sharply, eyes flickering with something that resembled disbelief as well as grim satisfaction. He had nearly forgotten that Chloe's office had been bugged.

The days and hours seemed to bleed together, and the last thing he needed was _Lana _screwing things up further. Why couldn't she just stay away? He would have to do something about that. "Yes, Bernard, thank you. Immediately." Bernard inclined his head and turned away to do the President's bidding, as he was accustomed to doing.

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**FLASHBACK**

**(I know, I tend to do this quite often)**

Chloe thanked her lucky stars that she did not have to put up with a roommate since Lana. It seemed unlikely that very many people would grow accustomed to the constant comings and goings of a bald multi-billionaire, and now governor to boot as well as the frequent nighttime and mid afternoon visits of a meteor freak farm boy who had taken to constantly bringing fabric swatches and different costume designs to pore over. There is only so much one person can take for rent-control.

Lex decided against the red dress...twice, and the decision making process was so exhausting that they ordered pizza for dinner and breakfast. She was perfectly aware of the fact that he could summon his many servants and minions to come by her apartment at all hours of the night with exquisite cuisine, but he knew better than to attempt such a bold maneuver. He had yet to achieve getting her to remain the night at his mansion, and he was coming dangerously close to giving up that part of the power-struggle altogether.

Pauline seemed to be quite gleeful at the prospect of running Chloe straight into the ground, not caring whatsoever that she was facing finals for the, well, final time. Graduation, a terrifying prospect under normal circumstances, was beginning to appear all the more attractive as school became less of an 'experience' and more of a chore.

While she observed her fellow collegians strapped onto beer bongs and making the most of their final weeks of being students, she couldn't help but wonder if she could be doing the same in any alternate universe. Change one variable and everything is invariably altered, if she had never met Clark, would she be one of those drunk morons, a runner up for the all-important wet T-shirt contest? There would be no Lex, at least as far as she was concerned. Nothing would be the same, Clark's secret touched every part of her life, left nothing unmoved. He was her first dream boy and arguably obsession, the first and one of the few times she actually surrendered an attempt at a conquest. Even his secret was her own, a burden that grew heavier by the day.

"Chlo?" The man of the minute called from behind her, his unassuming voice booming over the raucous and inebriated college students nearby. She smiled as she turned to face him, amused with his timing and glad that this alone would be her own, she was fighting tooth and nail to have something of her own to cling to, the childish and unmoving part of her not wishing to share.

"Gotta love that...flannel." She greeted flatly, absorbing his outfit with distaste. "Got your super suit under that or are you roughing it?" He blushed but remained chivalrously unaffected by her slight.

"Only a few more weeks of carted food, want to stop for one of those mochachino...thingies?" He gave up on proper pronunciation and exerted a genuine smile from his female counterpart, a jolly expression barely lingering under the surface. Her perpetual high spirits were contagious, even if he didn't fully understand their origin. The only time he was in l-o-v-e he was consistently miserable, not that he wished to divulge this bit of information to the girl who refused to acknowledge her mushy-gushy feelings as of yet.

"I'd love to, mister Kent. But if you can't pronounce it, I'm not sure if you really want it in your system." She informed him, keeping her own as he walked a bit too briskly for her taste.

"Yeah, I've got simple tastes." He grinned, knowing that he was feeding into the corn-fed country boy stereotype and just not caring.

"Well hold on there, cowboy, I'm not sure I'm up to the workout." Her admittedly short legs were straining to keep in stride with Clark's, and he instantly slowed. "You in a rush, got a hot date?" She nudged him, playful smile somewhat detached as she realized that Clark was obviously apprehensive. She reached for his elbow, concern etched in her face. "What is it?"

His acute senses were piqued to Chloe's confusion. What sort of meteor-stalker would be stupid enough to follow him in broad daylight, unless they had a death wish? He had a definite reputation with the freaks for being unbeatable, and after years of being attacked and challenged she thought that they had, for the most part, realized that their attempts were in vain.

"We're being followed." Due to his conspicuous and animal-like tenseness this came as no shock to Chloe.

What was it this time? What intergalactic bad guy thought that he'd have a figurative pissing contest with the man of steel? She quickly surveyed their surroundings, making sure that if a scene were to be made no credible witnesses could vouch for an 'epic' comic book battle. All of these years of precaution and costume creating could not be in vain, and Chloe would not allow them to be construed as such.

"Where?" She questioned, continuing to meander as inconspicuously as possible.

Clark's eyes widened and he relaxed his shoulders, taking Chloe's example and acting as though nothing were wrong. "The car on the street corner." Chloe frowned, in was not a very villainous course of action to stalk you prey via a beat up jalopy...a bit _too _unassuming when her mind was put to it. But how is one to premeditate being followed, especially when her dealings were as legal as they had ever been? The pair turned a corner and the instant they were out of sight, Clark revved up his superpowers and hightailed it; arguably one of his biggest flaws was the combination of his curiosity and urge to do right by the world.

It only took a collective three seconds of nail-biting silence for Chloe's reverie to be broken with the not-so-distant shattering of a rather heavy object, followed by abrasive shouting. Chloe whirled around swiftly, sprinting (against her better judgment) to the area of argument, instantly setting her eyes on the lean and haggard giant billowing at Clark, who was holding his own and yelling directly back in such a manner that the dialog was impossible to comprehend. Her brow furrowed as she glanced back and forth from Clark to the stranger, instantly certain of his 'normalcy.'

"What the hell..." The question she had yet to phrase was answered as Clark frantically gesticulated to the ground, where what used to be a camera lay in shambles, expensive by the looks of it. Something clicked as she fixated on the man's face, unassuming car and pricey electronics, as well as the circles that haunted his eyes synonymous with stakeouts and coffee overdoses. The bastard was a PI, a man after her own initial heart, and currently the subject of much berating.

"You broke my goddamn Nikon, you...boor!" He screeched, any and all assumptions about his professional candor instantly dismissed.

Clark glowered, his rage twisting his boyish face and rendering him speechless, leaving Chloe in charge of any demands. "Who hired you, and why are you following him?" She asked, more accustomed to the nosy, obnoxious obtrusiveness and brute willpower surrounding those who are paid to act on their curiosity. The man's bloodshot eyes darted from Clark's to Chloe's face in something that one could only perceive as confusion.

"Him? I, well, I wasn't hired to follow _him, _he just happens to follow _you _around, and have a penchant for destroying my noninsured recording devices!" His pitch hit an all time shrill-factor, bringing a tangible wince to Chloe's face and an expression of alarmed bemusement to Clark's, a sharp contrast to the flitting fury previously displayed.

"Who wanted you to follow me?" She asked, incapable of concealing her very evident displeasure and unrestrained wonderment.

The man was losing steam in her esteem quickly, easy to irritate and provoke. "Who do you think? Your big bad boyfriend." It took all the restraint in Chloe's possession to avoid seeking Clark's eyes, well aware of the knowing and patronizing knowledge that would dwell there. Her dubiety was quickly replaced with twisting anger, the kind that could not go unacknowledged...for long.

**Cliffie, I'm evil, I know!**


	14. Dreaded Confrontation

**I know it has been unforgivably long, and I wouldn't be surprised if no one really reads or reviews this, but if you do please tell me what you think. I love feedback!**

Present Day

Lex had taken up an exclusively villainous pastime; pacing around his office, hands tucked behind his back as he pondered. Perhaps it would have been time better spent if he were to submerge himself in his work, like a petite ace reporter he knew all too well, but instead he immersed himself in his own thoughts. They were typical thoughts of self-loathing and regret, contemplating on things he could not change and, in reality, if he were given the opportunity to do so it was quite likely he would do it all over again with a smile.

Lex Luthor was a man of action, a man of strength. He yearned for the thrill of the chase, years ago his prey consisted of buxom models and aspiring actresses, all of whom salivated at the idea of bedding a billionaire. He went through women like silk sheets; let his peons deal with the fallout from his disastrous affairs.

Lana was a case in point, one of the very few women who cut off ties to him before he had the chance or the inclination to call it off himself. At the time, he believed that this was true heartbreak. That losing future Revlon darling and current mind blowing beauty entailed a deep loss that etched a hole inside of him. It took Chloe for him to realize that the only thing that had been wounded by the dissipation of his relationship with Lana was his pride.

Meeting up with Chloe Sullivan had been merely a matter of divine intervention; he had never set upon seeking her out in a romantic fashion until they had incidentally became reacquainted. The second he set his sights on her any memory or longing for Lana left his mind and heart for good.

"Mister President, a Miss Lang to see you." Bernard's voice proclaimed in his typically detached manner over the speaker mounted on Lex's desk.

Not surprised, Lex leaned over his mahogany desk and responded with a resonating, "bring her in."

Ah, the euphemisms of the rich and powerful. He had ordered some of his worst men to track down Lana, claws out and ready to do whatever necessary to keep things on an even keel. She was more here in the white house on her own accord than his hairline was _slightly_ receding.

Lex's men at least allowed her the dignity of entering his office without a flank of secret service agents watching her every move. Though she stepped through the door without knocking, he couldn't help but note that she was still a knock-out. She was draped in a sparkling midnight blue gown with her chestnut hair tied into an elegant knot, and Lex wondered if Bernard had wrenched her off of the red carpet.

The sound sharp _clap_ of her strappy heels was muffled by the masterful carpet, deadening what may have sounded threatening. She would have appeared poised for the shoot if it were not for the murderous look etched on her face, engraved in her flawless cheekbones and set in her beautiful eyes.

"What exactly is it that you want?" She snapped as soon as she was in spitting distance from the President.

Lex took the liberty of extending his hand toward the vacant chair as he lounged back in his plush leather. Years of diplomacy dismantled any desire she may have had to ignore the request, crossing her ankles and arms simultaneously.

"How are you, Lana?" He inquired politely, noting that the sound of her name fell flat.

She rolled her eyes, a gesture that was misplaced on a face so elegant. "I am assuming that you didn't hunt me down just to exchange pleasantries." He merely responded with the quirk of an eyebrow, allowing her to continue without interruption.

She went on, unfailingly. "What's this all about?" She was still the doe eyed ingénue and he still felt like the vaudeville villain, bad mustache and all.

He looked at her, unflinchingly, interlocking his fingers while contemplating his next move. It didn't take long, he was not much of a thinker. "You know exactly why you're here, and I'll save you the problem of denying it. You went to the Daily Planet, a publication that LuthorCorp owns, to spew your poison. I don't know exactly how stupid you think I am, but I feel that you have severely underestimated me." He came to his feet, absorbing the look of shock on her face as he rose.

"I have listened to your _conversation_ numerous times, and I can't help but wonder…consider, no _demand _to know exactly what it was that you gave to Chloe." He was flustered, a state that Lana had never had the opportunity to witness and that she was frankly frightened of.

"I don't know what—" She began to deny, only to be silenced by her former lover's palm slapping the mahogany of his pristine desk, his own emotions rippling through him as he battled the urge to attack her, rip her hair from its neat and immaculate bun, to make the makeup run down her tan cheeks and tear her dress in rage. He wanted to destroy everything about her, leave no pieces for anyone else to find.

Their inherent style was one of the few things they had in common, apart from a distaste for Clark Kent's many secrets. They were both people of perfect taste, perhaps a bit obsessive if one were to get down to the root of things, but nevertheless their equal fervor for their own precision made them kindred spirits. Lana no longer felt as though she knew this person, this hulking creature that stood in front of her, any and all controlled behavior thrown out the window.

He stepped back, ripping his eyes from her shocked face and reclaiming his seat. "Don't…you dare. I have your voice on tape, and while I agree that Clark is _rather bristly_, I do find you're heavy handed dramatics a bit troublesome, though. What was it that made you so certain of my nefarious plans, and what did you give to Chloe? Take as much time as you want to lie, Lana, I have plenty of time." Whatever it was that she had handed over, the idea of Chloe having it made him deeply uneasy.

Lana straightened herself in an attempt to regain some sort of control over her composure. "Well, I…" She began, only to restart. She raised her chin, as well as her voice, "you know what you're doing, I know what you're doing, and now Chloe does too. Think about it, _Lex," _she snarled menacingly. "Do you really think that, by now, Clark doesn't know all about it?" And that was all it took, without a thought he extended his arm and slapped her clear across the cheek.

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**FLASHBACK**

"I can't believe it." Chloe was dumbfounded, head sunk in her arms as she collapsed on her dilapidated couch. "Well, I guess I can," she amended reluctantly, thinking of his suspicious calls and constant knowledge of her whereabouts. She felt Clark adjust his weight on his end of the couch, evidently uncomfortable holding back his 'I told you so's' for such an extended period of time.

He patted her foot awkwardly, more familiar with this sort of relationship distress but still uncertain of how he was meant to comfort someone so accustomed to consoling him. Clark had berated the private investigator before releasing him with his fragmented gadgets while Chloe stood in stunned silence.

Her usual inquisitiveness escaped her at that crucial juncture, and even after an hour had passed she was still not back to form. The phone rang in the distance, the sound that startled and repulsed Chloe simultaneously. Clark saw her fleeting expression and turned away, instantly destroying the device, melting the plastic into the marble counter top.

Chloe choked back a hysterical laugh, finding herself on the verge of tears she neither understood nor desired to permit. "Thanks, but now I'm sure the building's going to be surrounded by helicopters." Clark still said nothing, resting his arm against her leg. She sat up abruptly, pushing his limb aside and brushing her blond hair impatiently from her face.

"Ugh, I feel so SUFFOCATED!" She exclaimed, rising to her feet and shaking off her feelings of self-pity and replacing them with righteous anger, ignoring the ache of disappointment she'd never allow herself to acknowledge.

"He's with me most of the time, and when he isn't he's calling me, and when he's not calling me he's having me followed by some creepy and inept PI!" She rambled, walking briskly to the kitchen and eyeing the mountain of melted telephone with distaste. She snatched a spatula from the sink and angled it under the mess, working to dislodge it from her tile.

"Here, let me…" Clark offered, following loyally behind her. "It'll be easier if it's softer," he explained, squinting to control the amount of heat he emitted, watching it soften like play dough. His cell phone buzzed in his coat, breaking his concentration. He cut his eyes instinctually to his pocket, sending an unrestrained burst of heat across the kitchen, striking Chloe square on the forearm.

She cried out in pain, the spatula clattering to the floor as she clutched the burn, moving away from her project. Before she could blink Clark was there, clutching her hand and investigating the damage. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" He didn't wait for a response; instead he leaned over her to turn on the faucet, forcing her arm beneath the steady stream of ice water.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Jeez, and that was on low? I can't even think what that must feel like when you switch it on to high gear." She joked, resisting the pressure on her injury to no avail.

Sensing her hesitancy, Clark held his ground without needing to exert even a single ounce of pressure. "It'll feel better," he promised, splashing more water onto her. "I'm sorry, Chlo, are you alright?" He apologized, ignoring the continual buzz in his breast pocket as he turned off the faucet and instinctually lifted her wrist to his mouth, brushing his lips against her burn.

She froze, eyes fixed on the man of steel as he released her, his expression complacent. She felt the familiar, but brief, flutter of butterflies in her stomach that made her feel oddly giddy. "Uh huh, yeah, oh yeah, I'm perfectly…totally fine. Yeah, fine." She stammered; for once glad for Clark's notorious obtuseness. He reached into his pocket, and the instant his irritated curiosity turned to a smooth poker face she knew who was on the other line.

Chloe wondered if she was going to have to dispose of two murdered phones in one day when he surprised her by picking up. "Yes? How did you get this number? Oh, of course. I don't want you calling me. If she wanted to talk to you, she would have answered when you called two minutes ago…yes, I'm with her and no, you can't talk to her." He stated with unwavering certainty despite Chloe's extended and uninjured arm.

"Thanks, Clark, but I can handle this." She said, peeved by his coddling and annoyed with her own cowardice.

He covered the mouthpiece with his free hand, "it's my minutes, Chloe." He teased, but relented nonetheless. She didn't bother announcing herself; he knew by her breathing that she had taken the phone. "What's going on Chloe?" He didn't sound angry, which surprised her. His private investigator extraordinaire must not have gotten back to him yet.

"I need to talk to you, can you meet me?" He agreed, still baffled, and she hung up without another word. "Clark, I'm sorry…" She turned to him, reluctant to shoo him away. But he was already gone. Chloe sighed, his disappearing act shouldn't have surprised her, but it always did. And he took her phone with him.

**Tell me what you think. I'm a little rusty, but I'd appreciate feeback.**


	15. Then And Now

Present Day

Chloe stared unseeingly at her computer monitor, eyes unfocused and posture slackened. The words she so desperately needed for self-preservation turned sharp corners and refused to stop for directions somewhere in her sluggish brain, dripping slowly from her fingers. Her mind was focused elsewhere, her article taking the back burner to her own innumerable crises. She would feel more selfish if the main one did not concern the future of the free world.

She chanted a fragmented version of the serenity prayer as she slowly churned out another subpar sentence, compulsively checking her frustratingly inactive phone. _Accept the things I can't change..._despite this vow, she found herself glancing to see if Clark had yet to respond to her three text messages and two messages and, of course, he had not.

She feigned concentration as Symone ducked into her office as an evident ploy to disarm, but Chloe didn't so much as twitch as she pretended to pore over her minuscule article. "How far along are you, Sullivan?" She snapped, disappointed by her failure to evoke fear.

"I'm getting there, no worries." She responded automatically, barely registering the _click _as Symone vacated the premises. She forced out another paragraph before her ring tone startled her out of her monotony. She barely read his name before she flipped it open and pressed it to her ear

"Hello? I really need help." Years ago she would have flinched at the desperation in her voice, contemplating what Clark would think as she analyzed her inflection, but those days were long gone.

"Chlo, I'll be there in less than an hour. What's wrong?" Ha, what wasn't wrong? What was always wrong? Clark's love life was so notorious for being the product of or resulting in chaos and destruction and when her relationship with Lex had imploded she felt as though she had joined his exclusive club, but she wished the 'honor' of being a member didn't extend to repeat performances.

"Well, you saw Lana, or at least that's the story my stress ball is telling me. She was warning me about Lex, like we really needed to be warned. But, uh, she said something really weird...about him. I'm not sure if she was just going for the jugular or she was serious, but either way I need your help. She gave me something, and I don't see anything important about it." For good measure, she picked up the slip of paper and investigated it once more, to no avail.

She could hear the wind resistance on the other line, and could tell that Clark had increased his rate of flying. "Going into hyper drive, Kent?" She teased, though her tone was flat. Lana's words troubled her to no end, and she found herself turning the quote unquote evidence upside down, reading the words and numbers without any flash of genius. Like a proper investigator, she plugged everything into Google and every other search engine known to man, only to find herself even more confused, if that was possible.

"What is she even doing here?" He asked, trying and failing to sound as though it were a throwaway question of little importance, but his voice gave him away immediately. He was a super meteor freak who could melt telephones and diamonds with ease, absorb the impact of bullets and fly at unbelievable speeds and yet he still had the same weaknesses as in high school: Lana Lang and kryptonite.

He had dated other women, few who were able to hurt him on the same level as his college and high school sweetheart, but none who stayed with him like she could. Seeing her billboard caused a spasm of pain, even all these years later. During the Lex/Lana affair he had to avoid supermarket checkout lines for fear of seeing them passionately embracing on the cover of some trashy tabloid. She could be 85, checking into an old folks' home and the sight of her would still rebreak Clark's heart. Chloe tried to pretend it didn't make her jealous with little success.

"I dunno, but I was under the impression it had little to do with the social scene in Kansas," she remarked sarcastically, haphazardly adding a semicolon into her article. "I can fly the coop in...about a half hour, do you want to meet up at my place?" She asked, glancing at the clock on her computer monitor. He agreed and they said their goodbyes, leaving Chloe to focus on her article. "Oh god," she muttered, looking over her mess of a rough copy. Rough, indeed.

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**FLASHBACK (usually I don't enjoy these in other stories, but I really like these ones)**

Chloe pondered the wisdom of inviting Lex to her place, fuzzily recalling some warning a bubble gum teen magazine had given her in her youth about breaking up in your own place of residence. She thought it unlikely that he would petulantly trash her apartment, but as she glanced around at what was already wreckage she wondered, what more could he do? Clean her closets?

She sat rigidly on her couch before springing to her feet, deciding to take a dominant position. She turned the coffee table to act as a barrier from the door to her, more for Lex's protection than her own. She had moved past shock and into an anger that put to shame every other emotion she could recall feeling, her energy so tightly wound that she felt ready to spring at any moment.

In less than a minute, Lex was at the door and through it. She cursed her lacking observational skills, dulled by her rage, recalling that unlike most people she knew (besides Clark) he didn't take time lingering behind the safety of a closed door. He took one look at her expression before roving his eyes around the room, brow wrinkled as he absorbed the changes. "Better feng shui?" He asked, stepping forward only to have Chloe step back. She battled the urge to jump over the table and tackle Lex, but knew that it wouldn't be wise because A) he could take her, and B) he might interpret it sexually.

"What's going on, Chlo?" He asked, and she realized that his alarmingly inept investigator _still_ had yet to fill him in on the goings on this afternoon.

"Do you trust me?" She asked, an edge on her voice that made Lex well aware that this was no time for joking.

"Yes, of co..." and she had him.

She leaped forward, hands on her hips and blood pressure skyrocketing. "Then why, exactly, did you have some moronic, jalopy-driving, Nikon-carrying ignoramus FOLLOWING ME? Hmm, take all the time you want to explain that one, because I can't think of one good reason that I shouldn't shove my cheap boots up your lying ass!" She demanded, taking pleasure in witnessing the expression of shock and disbelief splayed for all to see across Lex's face. She could see him backtracking, trying to find a good reason or explaining his _little _not-so-secret secret.

She tapped her feet exaggeratedly, glancing at the analog clock overhead as Lex fought his way through being dumbfounded. "Okay, I changed my mind. You have exactly eight seconds to tell me why you thought it was a good idea to hire some idiot to follow me around. What, you don't know where I am for twelve minutes and you decide that the mature course of action would be to sic one of your guard dogs after me? If your explanation includes the words or phrases 'for your own good' or 'standard procedure' I'm quite certain I'm going to kill you. You're on the clock."

His experience in politics ceased his floundering, and he admirably rose to the time challenge. "I'm sorry, Chloe. I really am, but it's safer for me and all those connected to me. My advisers insist on having my paramours periodically investigated for the sake of the campaign. The scandal could damper my chances of making a higher office. This has nothing to do with trust, it's more an insurance policy for my backers." Chloe felt oddly deflated by his explanation, and she felt, perhaps foolishly, that he was telling her the truth. It did not make his actions any less underhanded, but it certainly cushioned the blow.

Career minded as she was, Chloe could empathize with the need to keep ones romantic interludes out of the public eye. If it were to be common knowledge that she was bedding a high ranking government official, she was certain her reputation would suffer, but she had never paused to consider what it would be like for Lex. She had seen, and even assisted in, the downfalls of senators, governors and even treasurers due to their indiscretions or the folly of their lovers. From a pragmatic standpoint, that's all she was to Lex's advisors, a frivolous entertainment expense that was harmless as long as she didn't make a fool out of herself...and, by association, him.

The angry, illogical part of her yearned to forget the wisdom in this, instead preferring to scream and flail her arms about in an unproductive, yet intensely satisfying, manner.

"I've never cheated on anyone, Lex, and I wouldn't start with you! You're a psychotically jealous politician who's giant shiny head is so far up his ass he can't see that the only one I want to fool around with is him!" She stated flatly, the anger rippling but no longer ripping through her.

He stepped around the table instinctively, arm extended toward hers, but froze at her inhospitable expression. He froze, arm retracting woundedly, feeling the overwhelming desire to elaborate, to say anything to stop her from making up her mind. The mere thought of her leaving him twisted a part of Lex he didn't even know existed.

"It's not just that, the higher you aim the more easy it is to miss in politics. Any slight indiscretion could come back to bite me in the future, and the investigators are just precautionary in case the need arises to do damage control before it's too late. Why do you think we hired that man? He isn't exactly up to par with my hiring standards, Chloe." He plead, hearing the pathetic desperation in his voice but all the while not caring that his pride was deteriorating.

Lex felt a wave of relief when her face softened infinitesimally, though her body language still screamed hostility. Adverse to the crackling tension, he continued. "I...I'll call him right now," he whipped out his phone, scanning his address book and dialing. "Yes, this is Alexander Luthor calling, I'm ordering a cease and desist on the surveillance of Chloe Sullivan...yes, I'm certain. You will receive you're final check in the...what?" He listened for a moment, and though his lips remained pursed professionally, is eyes went to Chloe with distinct amusement and affection.

"Yes, write an estimate of the damages and I'll have a member of the staff confirm it and the specified amount will be tacked onto your final check...you can mail the file to Ms. Sullivan's residence and dispose of any negatives immediately. One of my employees is on his way over to confirm that these requests are followed in full, and failure to do so will result in docked pay...yes, to you too." Lex said in a clipped tone, hanging up and quickly re-pocketing his phone.

Chloe sank into the couch, disregarding her original plan. "How am I supposed to know you won't just hire PI 2.0 the second you leave? I just...can't believe that I'm so surprised. Do you know what that's like, Lex? I trusted you, and c'mon, you've been screwing models since you were fifteen and...I've never even thought that you would do something like that to me, and now..." She threw her arms up in the air, out of words.

Lex hesitated before maneuvering himself beside her, placing his hand on her arm. "I...you're...I don't know..." He muttered uncharacteristically, and she couldn't help but marvel that she was the reason behind his tongue-tied stammering. She had seen him wriggle out of close situations in political debates and he had never even paused in an argument with his peers, but here he was, in her crappy rent-controlled apartment that still smelled like old Thai and Chinese takeout, and he was out of his element.

She assumed that to those looking from the outside in would think that Lex Luthor was slumming it with a perky little blond. Who could believe it? Not only was she barely 'cute' in comparison to his innumerable model conquests, she was bogged down by college debt and she aspired to be a journalist whom would, optimistically, barely make enough to support herself.

Deep in thought, she turned away, sight fixed on a new charred mark in the kitchen. It seems Clark's gaze had not only burned her phone, her counter and her skin, but also damaged her cabinets. _I'm never getting that cleaning deposit back..._

Lex seized her by the shoulders and turned her to face him with more gusto than was perhaps necessary. He struggled for a moment before saying, "Chloe what I want to say is...I'm in love with you." And at that moment, Clark and his super-accidents were the furthest things from her mind.

**Please review, I love feedback!**


	16. Flight or Fancy

**Hope you guys like this! Be sure to tell me what you think.**

Present Day, The White House

Lana sat crouched in the President's plush guest chair, wincing as Lex reached for his intercom to summon one of his many lackeys. She pressed a warm hand to her cheek, hoping to ease the sting. Even a half hour later, she could still feel his imprint on her face. She was a coward, and she had sung like a nightingale.

"Bernard will show you the door, Miss Lang. Thank you so much for your cooperation. I would like to think that it would be obvious that you stay away from Chloe Sullivan from here on out. I hope your little visit got all of your reminiscing out of the way." His henchman loomed in the door, looking professionally sinister.

"Am I intruding?" He questioned softly, eyeing the gorgeous model unobtrusively.

"Not at all, you're timing is perfect. If you wouldn't mind escorting the lovely Lana Lang to her cab, and I hate to seem distrustful but it's in all of our best interests if you sweep her again for any electronics." He glanced at his watch and rose to his feet, ignoring Lana's recoil. "Oh, well, I have a meeting. Have a nice life, Miss Lang, and remember me on election day."

Lana came to her feet gracefully, brushing off the wrinkles of her dress and fixing her slightly imperfect hair, eyes piercing with rage. "You're a monster, Lex." Lana snarled, head held high as she shrugged off Bernard's attempt to guide her. She held herself together through the lavish halls, down the decorated stairwells, and through the pristine doors. But when she was ushered and pushed into a dank cab, she dissolved immediately.

Lana thought of how young and idealistic she had been throughout high school and even college, a strong advocate for solidarity in friends. Oh, how she fiercely believed that good would always trump evil, and she was adamant that she would always do what was right, even at her own expense. But in all the years of battling the baddies, or at least being present whilst others protected her from said baddies, Lex was in a league of his own.

When she stepped into her former lover's office, she had resolved to concede nothing and play the ingenue, a part she was so deft at playing. After the first strike, carefully executed to embarrass but not severely harm, Lana had made up her mind to never return to Smallville again. When struck once more, any thought of contacting Chloe dissipated. She knew better than to try his patience, or attempt a tricky maneuver in hopes of assisting her old friends.

Lex wasn't some freak of the week, and he was hardly a mad scientist, tinkering with a chemistry set in the basement. He was dangerous to a degree that she had never experienced before. He had all the resources he could ever desire within reach, and he knew exactly what it was he wanted, and was more resolved than ever to achieve it.

She recalled when they began to see each other how he showered her with flowers, gifts and attention, and she giddily allowed this, confusing the thrill of the chase with true affection. Even he himself believed that he loved her, but it didn't take long for her to comprehend his true character.

She thought, maybe even hoped, that it was the same with Chloe. All along she believed that he simply loved the idea of loving her, that being with someone so dreadfully small town made him feel domesticated, like he was a method actor attempting to live the part of caring, empathetic politician. It was petty of her, but Lana didn't want Chloe to 'win' again, like she did with Clark.

While he may have loved her in a near obsessive capacity, but he didn't tell her things, confide his deepest and darkest secrets to her. He never held her and explained what was going on in his life, perhaps because he already had such an opportune person to vent at, or maybe, as she dreaded, because he didn't think she could handle it.

Chloe, however, was above scrutiny for Clark. She could see how much he relied on her, how he trusted her above anyone else. At the time there may have been no romantic spark for him, but he loved and trusted her in a way that incurred Lana's envy. When there was a problem Chloe was the first he called, the one he employed to go deep undercover, to use her connections to get to the bottom of whatever 'it' was.

Lana wanted to believe that this was because there was a sort of expendability, that he could martyr Chloe because she wasn't as important to him. But, at least instinctually, she knew that this wasn't so. Clark prided himself on having some sort of misplaced sense of integrity, he was willing to sacrifice himself for strangers and friends alike, and the only reason Chloe was a coconspirator was due to her own abilities; she had proven herself to be a worthy ally while Lana was just the consummate damsel in distress.

Try as she may to hone her martial art skills, to become vital to Clark's crack team that seemed to consist of only himself and his favorite reporter. But she gave up that dream long ago, but even now the memory of her attempts made her blush.

She ran to Lex looking for something totally different than Clark Kent, but it all ended up the same anyway. Chloe had a piece of Clark that Lana could never look at, let alone touch. She knew the good and the ugly, and Chloe stood alongside him anyway while Lana stood with him, ignorant of the true goings on. And so she had left, perhaps even abandoned them in their crusade for what's 'right' and 'good'.

With Lex it was different, he was not as furtive as Clark and so there wasn't the immediate suspicion, but instead a growing sense of unease. He was too casual about his business in front of her, trying too hard to seem nonchalant so as not to make the same mistake his former friend had made.

Lana felt an irrational jealousy toward Chloe that she had a hard time articulating, and never attempted to make sense of it. But even now she felt a tinge territorial and exposed; not only did this spectacularly unspectacular woman have a piece of both Clark and Lex that she never did, but she was blissfully unaware of her hold.

Lana had ended it with both men, and yet she felt she was the one put out in the end. She could attribute it to selfishness that persisted well past her formative years, but no matter what the cause she did not envy Chloe now.

"To the airport, please." Lana said, wiping the dampness from her eyes and ruining her makeup once and for all. Lana was going to get the hell out of this state, and then out of the country, and even out of this hemisphere. She was going to run and never look back. She only hoped that it was far enough.

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Present, Chloe's substandard apartment

Clark had beat Chloe home. He was parked on her lounge chair, his freshly cleaned feet propped up on the scarred coffee table and a fresh copy of the newspaper in his hands. "I thought you said a half hour, Chlo, not...four half hours." He said, but his voice and the grin splayed on his face took any sterness from the statement. She glanced at his 'reading glasses' and rolled her eyes, leaning forward to pluck them from off his face.

"Honey, I'm home!" She exclaimed mockingly, tossing her jacket onto a chair before surveying Clark's fashion statement. "Those thick rims look so ridiculous. You can look through walls, for cripes' sake and you're feigning near sightedness." She sighed, plopping down on her battered sofa. "You know Symone, she ripped my article to shreds and then stuffed it down my throat." She stated dully, explanatory.

Clark nodded knowingly, disregarding the paper and readjusting his posture. "What did, uh, _she _give you?" He asked, suddenly sullen. It was evident that the 'she' to whom he referred was not her ornery editor. Chloe valiantly resisted the urge to roll up the news and slap him with it and merely sighed.

"She's not Voldemort, Clark, you can say the L-word...not like the show, though." She added as an afterthought, addressing the least pressing of the issues at hand for the sake of her sanity before tackling the ones of importance. "And I don't know what this thing is, if it's even anything," she added, taking the nondescript slip of paper out of the pocket in her Levi's, and it was barely exposed before it disappeared. Chloe looked at the man of steel testily, and he didn't appear to have moved. He was getting scarily good.

Chloe was torn; she was completely uncertain as to what the best course of action would be. Should she repeat Lana's distressing statement, or wait until things played out? If it were anyone other than she-who-must-not-be-named Chloe would explain the situation without hesitation, but as she looked at Clark's exhausted face she paused, wracked with uncertainty.

He unfolded the paper with more gingerness than necessary before reading it, or reading what he could. "It's got to be in code, it's not coordinates, is it?" He asked without looking up. She shook her head, knowing he would get the message. "What if every letter in the alphabet was assigned a specific number?"

She shrugged before coming to her feet and skipping to her laptop. "If it is, we don't have the key to decode it. I wasted a lot of time on some of those programs we have at work." She placed the computer down where Clark's feet used to be before whirling around and heading to the kitchen, rifling through the cabinet. "Here's to hoping Symone doesn't look too hard at my work history," she stated flatly, snatching a bottle of cheap tequila from the depths and snagging two glasses on her way back to the couch.

Clark gratefully traded the paper for a glass, glad that Chloe was so willing to take the reigns in this excapade. "You just sit here and look pretty, little lady, while the big man does the work." She teased, tinkering with her keyboard for a few moments. "I have some better programs on here, but I'm gonna be mighty pissed if this all turns out to be a bust. Pour me some of that, if you wouldn't mind." He obliged, and they drank it together. Chloe pondered what the 'wise' thing to do would be, she couldn't put Pandora back into the box, and would it really help expedite the process if Clark was overwrought?

"I was thinking maybe there might be a phone number hidden in this mess...or maybe a name, or an account number. But really, I'm just guessing. I'm not sure how many people I want to get involved in this whole thing. Lana made it out to be mighty important." She commented, the cowardly part of her hoping that Clark would just prod for details so she wouldn't have to go into Lana's tirade unprovoked. She had no such luck, he just nodded vaguely and took another drink.

A few drinks later, Chloe raised the ultimate question; "Do you think they'll ever make synchronized shots an olympic sport? I honestly don't think it's fair that they have the luge and pole vaulting, and yet they still fail to appeal to the every day man. I mean, you," she gestured sloppily toward Clark, vaguely aware of the fact that she was more than a bit tipsy. Who was she kidding? She was well on her way to being smashed.

"You could beat everyone in every country in every sport if you wanted to, and I wouldn't even qualify as light weight division drinker." She rolled her eyes in frustration as the computer screen yielded no results. Clark, of course, was perfectly sober and intensely amused by her spectacle. "I'm one of those obnoxiously yippy people when I have a few in me, aren't I?" She asked, though it was obviously rhetoric. "I'm like a little blond poodle." That at least got a smile, as well as a furtive glance toward his watch.

Chloe wasn't fooled. "Got a hot date?" It was his turn to roll his eyes, and she threw him a bone. "Turn the TV on to see if there are any imminent global disasters, I don't mind." He smiled appreciatively, catching the remote with ease despite Chloe's flawed toss. _Speaking of cataclysmic events, the funniest thing happened today. I heard that my ex might just be attempting to destroy the free world! Funny, right?_ Chloe took another sip of liquid courage, deciding that the timing was wrong.

"I don't think you've gone out with an actual flesh and blood girl for...as long as I can remember. Why don't you date anymore?" Ah, the question she would never had dared to ask if she had her senses about her.

Clark smiled humorlessly, sipping back another glass. "I could ask you the same question, and at least I travel around the world on a weekly basis. It's hard to explain that to any girl."

She nodded in agreement, "Yeah, and most guys find the fact that I work most of the time and hang out with my Adonis lookalike best friend the rest of the time to be a bit daunting. Well, when you're not saving the world, of course." She added obligingly.

Clark skimmed the channels, but no pressing issues held his concentration. "I'm starting to wish we went with the velcro, Chlo." He said, examining his damaged shirt distastefully.

"Love to say it, so I will: I told you so." He smirked, that was just one of those things they had in common. "If you wanna change, I think I have some of your clothes in the bottom left drawer in my room." He quirked an eyebrow, meriting a crimson blush. "It's from when you get a distress call when you're over here and actually bother to take your clothes off like a human."

She groaned in frustration as her latest attempt, like all the others leading up to it, failed miserably. "How am I ever going to decode this thing? There's a lot of repeat numbers, and I'm trying to make some sense out of it but I keep coming up empty." She yawned, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth in the hopes of fooling Clark. No such luck.

"Chlo, you've been up for...26 hours. I think its bed time." She tried to argue, but he was already turning the computer off and tucking the frustrating clue in his pocket. "You won't be productive if your tripping all over yourself."

She muttered numerous insults under her breath, attempting in vain to force her eyes open and appear borderline coherent. "I miss coffee so much it hurts."

"It'll get better when you actually sleep. I think you've slept about eight hours in the past two weeks." He commented, capping the tequila and stacking the glasses.

"How'd you know?" She was becoming progressively unintelligible. His super hearing came in handy when his best friend was exhausted and drunk.

"I have my ways," He hedged, tucking a flyaway tendril of blond hair behind her ear.

She sunk back on the couch, giving into her weariness. "Have you been watching me?" She asked, sprawling out.

Clark was satisfied that the likelihood of her recalling this conversation was slim to none. "Just to make sure you're alright." He leant over her, effortlessly scooping her up into his arms. "You have a bed, you know." He informed her. She pressed her face into his chest, breathing noisily and adjusting herself.

"You can stay. You shouldn't drink and fly, you know." She chastised as he lifted the comforter off of her unmade bed and slid her under it. She grasped his wrist, surprisingly strong for a lush and already halfway asleep. He obliged hesitantly, waiting a moment before climbing in after her.

"You're persistent," it was his turn to mutter, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. In two minutes she was conked out, and two hours later he was still awake, looking at her sleep and lightly snore. He smoothed her knotted hair, brushing the flyaway strands away, eyes studying her unguarded face.

He knew the danger in this, and it was a danger both he and Chloe had been trying for a bit too long to avoid. He wasn't sure how she was holding up, but he was failing miserably. "Oh, boy."

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	17. Coffee and Consequence

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FLASHBACK

"He said what?" Lois marveled, swirling the striped swizzle stick in her black coffee. Her younger and equally baffled cousin wondered how the cheap plastic withstood coffee so strong that it could be used as a weapon of mass destruction in the middle east.

Chloe sighed, downing an enormous mouthful of her own blend, carefully designed to not erode the enamel on her teeth. "My thoughts exactly, I can't believe he delivered that line with a straight face." She noted bitterly, throwing another packet of sugar into her already-too-sweet beverage. "And before you ask, I tossed him out the door and made myself a self-pity sundae. Extra cherries."

Lois's face contorted in her usual manner, and Chloe reliably asked, "Why do you look like you just swallowed a lemon?"

Lois was glad for the opening, "And I thought I was cynical! You've been seeing him for _months _and you don't believe that he could _possibly _mean it?" Chloe rolled her eyes in retaliation, glad they were in a coffee shop instead of her apartment. She was certain this conversation would be carried on in much louder voices if they were granted privacy.

"He's like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar." She said, instantly dismissive. "He just said what he thought I wanted to hear, very typical." Lois pulled an uncharacteristic move and grasped her cousin's hand, patting it awkwardly.

"This has always been your problem, I mean it makes you a kick ass reporter but definitely makes your social life a disaster. You always believe the worst of people! And God, how suspicious are you? I mean, sure, when I heard that you were dating Mr. Clean I was less than thrilled, but even I think you're selling yourself short." She tsked shamelessly, even throwing a mockingly condescending wag of her finger into the mix.

Chloe's eyebrows shot up, the old-as-dirt sitcom phrase _who are you and what have you done with...so and so_. She admirably resisted the temptation, and instead remarked; "Out of character much, Lois? You hate Lex, remember? It's the one thing you and Clark have in common...apart from your unconditional love of me." She added in a fit of self-flattery.

Lois shrugged, casting aside her empty cup. "I want you to run for the hills because of his mile long track record, covered up or not, he and his sleazeball father's contribution to your wall of weird and because of his rep as a horn dog...to mention a few reasons. But even I can't, in good conscience, tell you that _this_ is a good reason to dump his spoiled rich ass.

"Don't get me wrong, I'd like to. The guy's a heel to everyone but you, and sometimes including you, but you're willing to put up with the constant phone calls, the petty jealousy and, from whatcha tell me, you were going to even overlook the borderline stalking. But a guy proclaims eternal devotion and that's where you draw the line? Just because a certain farm boy failed to reciprocate your painfully obvious affections doesn't mean that other people won't adore you like you deserve."

Chloe smiled weakly at the attempt. "I appreciate the pep talk, but I don't think my nature stems from teenage rejection. Lex got caught being...well, Lex, and he tried to squirm his way out of trouble. It's the politician in him, every time we fight he gets on the defense like he's caught in a touchy debate. This was a bluff, trust me."

It was Lois's turn to mimic her cousin's infamous eye roll, quick to change the subject. "Not that I'm not glad for the opportunity for girl talk, but why isn't your muscly farm boy apart of the Lex-bash fest? I thought he was president of the 'I hate and distrust Lex Luthor on every count' club."

Lois was surprised by her cousin's evident discomfort as she shifted awkwardly, avoiding eye contact for a moment. "You'd know, being the treasurer and all. Well, it's kinda sixth grade but...I just don't want his 'I told you so' tirade to start at such an inconvenient time. I mean, he's been great about not rubbing it in so far...but why tempt fate?" She muttered, "but I still can't forget the verbal lashing I got after he walked in on us."

Lois smiled sardonically, leaning in with interest. "Ooh, spill, Sullivan. I'll forget that I'm second string heart-to-heart buddy if you tell me exactly how that convo went down." She was certain of one thing, that in her mind the story would play out a lot better...if only she knew.

For a long time, Lois suspected that there might be something between Clark and Chloe, despite the fact that the two of them were the poster children for platonic friendship. And yet in spite of this, Clark had never taken to a single one of Chloe's cavorts, adn that was an under exaggeration. He greeted every one with suspicion, though it was relatively well founded considering her romantic history, but it was the same for her.

Chloe was not usually vocal or openly disproving, but there was not a girl on the planet good enough or trustworthy enough for her knight in shining armor. There was a sort of solidarity the pair of them shared as...well, whatever the hell the two of them were. Best friends? Future lovers currently in denial?

At Chloe's hesitancy, Lois was quick to say, "I'll get to the bottom of this, now that I've got a lead I can't just let it go. That's how it all starts, isn't it?"

Chloe pursed her lips thoughtfully before she sighed in defeat. "Using my own words against me? I'm so proud. You'll be an ace reporter yet."

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AFTER THE FIRST NIGHT

"I'll be right back," Chloe said, pushing Lex back and throwing her dilapidated overcoat on over her shamefully skimpy pajamas. Before he could voice any objection, she was out the door and down the stairs. If Clark had gone super speed, she had no chance in hell of catching up with him. Luckily (or was it unfortunately?) for her, he was too dazed to do so.

"Clark, wait up!" He froze momentarily, obviously weighing the consequences of further flight versus confrontation. When he turned to see her and got a glimpse of her guilty face, he made up his mind. He whirled around and stalked toward her and for one mad moment she considered running away when she saw the murderous look in his eyes. He was trembling with rage, and she saw passersby staring, startled, and rushing off in the opposite direction. She saw through the eyes of his enemies, observing her best friend anew. He looked dangerous, perhaps even lethal.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He roared, volume control tossed carelessly out of the figurative window. Chloe swore she felt the pavement beneath her tremble as the sound waves ricocheted off of the cement. Out of an innate sense of self preservation she stepped backward, once more overcome with the urge to sprint in the opposite direction. She felt like a weak, clueless deer brought face to face with an accelerating tank. When dormant, the two could coexist without fear, but once the key was turned and the vehicle was heading down a predictable course, the stakes changed.

She saw his eyes instantly assess the situation; taking in her body language, her facial expression and of course her sudden step back and his conclusion only gave way to more unadulterated rage. It was easier to see Clark as the Kryptonian he was in moments like these; where he was less of a person and more of an entity assembled by millions of invincible and unstoppable atoms.

"Clark...calm down. You're scaring me." She fought her own sense of preservation that served her so well over the years, taking deliberate steps toward him. She pressed her hand to his exposed bicep, feeling the intense heat radiating from his skin despite the coolness in the air.

Clark's eyes cut to her face with such an intensity that Chloe retracted her hand as though wounded. "What are you doing? Why...with _him?_ Honestly, Chloe, I can't even...I don't want to, just...do you have any idea..." He trailed off, anger ebbing slowly, replaced with confusion and hurt.

Chloe gaped like a fish, infinitely preferring the bone melting rage to this sad puppy. "I didn't think that you had an active interest in my love life!" She felt peevish and defensive, and angry people were rarely wise. Her words were the verbal equivalent of poking an agitated bull with a thorny stick.

He wasn't able to work himself up to his original fury on such short notice, but he made a valiant attempt. "It's _Lex Luthor,_ you know what he is! And you know better than anyone what he's done to his competitors, to anyone who gets in his way...to people like me. His sick experiments have turned dozens of vulnerable and mentally unstable people into insane _freaks _and you're playing house with him?" He impulsively grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her with a force that rattled her teeth. Shocked, she made no attempt to shake off his grasp.

He came to his senses on his own, releasing her with a dazed look on his face. "I'm sorry, so sorry I can't even believe...everything is so wrong. I've been in control of my powers for half a decade and now...I feel like I'm about to explode." He pressed his palms onto his scalp. Chloe grabbed his elbow and guided him to the nearest uncomfortable bench, pushing him into the seated position in the hopes of not provoking a 911 call.

"You slipped up, it happens to the best of us." She said, but even to her the words sounded hollow. He didn't look any more convinced than she did.

"How long has this gone on? Is it, or was it, a one time...uh, thing?" He asked lamely, averting his eyes in embarassment.

Chloe grimaced. So it was going to be _that _kind of awkward conversation. "I didn't want you to find out...the way you did, but you did. I don't want this to be a hallmark slash Kodak moment, but I really like him." He opened his mouth to argue or perhaps yell some more, but she silenced him with a look.

"I know you don't, and I get that. I'm not trying to get you to be all buddy-buddy with him," He glanced at her skeptically. "I'm not completely delusional, Clark. If I wasn't such a sissy I would've told you before that he and I are...dating." She choked the word out as though it caused her physical pain, and from the look on his face she figured that it affected him similarly.

"You know how this is going to end!" Clark exclaimed; exasperated by what he perceived to be his best friend's inability to admit fault in her choice of a 'mate.' Chloe stared at him, brows knit together in confusion.

"What are you trying to say, exactly?" She asked warily, not sure that she wanted to hear the answer.

He averted her eyes, tripping over his own words. "He's not…you're not the kind of…you know the way he is, what he does and, well…" He muttered in quiet desperation, trying to ignore the growing look of enraged disbelief on Chloe's face.

She snapped out of her reverie and turned to face him. "And _who _he does, right? Why don't you just say it?" She questioned, mortified by her own inference.

His silence only provoked her. "Just say it, I'm no Lana Lang. Don't you think I know that I'm, I'm not some _supermodel_? I get it, just because I've been right in front of your face for years while you turned the other way in favor of the cover girl extraordinaire doesn't mean everyone else is incapable of seeing me _that way_!" She snapped, appalled and embarrassed.

He gaped stupidly, blushing crimson as he began backtracking at the speed of light. "That's not what I'm talking about…well, he does have a pattern, but don't turn this over on me." He sputtered, and she hazarded a guess that super articulation was not one of his powers.

She bit her lip in frustration. She knew _how_ Lex was, but even more so she knew how _Clark _was. She had realized the first time they flirted, kissed, and…everything else, that he would perceive this as a personal betrayal of his trust. This was a given, it was understood and she had thought that she had accepted the consequences valiantly, only to find that she was not quite so noble.

Clark was a constant, standing un-eroded in the past, staunchly refusing to be moved. And yet here she was, trying to persuade the un-persuadable of something she had already resigned herself to accepting he would never agree with. Now who was unreasonable?

"Who should I _turn this over on_, then? I didn't want to get into this discussion with you, and I'm pretty sure you'll find it just as awkward as I do but, I get along with Lex, and I…like him, a lot. I'm not asking you to do anything, other than to _not_ be the way you're being right now." She said through gritted teeth. Having another anger explosion would not help anything…or so she chanted to herself.

Clark leaned back onto the bench, crossing his arms and sighing. Chloe mimicked his pose with a mocking scowl, earning a reluctant smile. "I know how you feel, and you know how I feel so how bout we just…feel that way." She proposed with forced cheer. "I don't try to change your mind, and you don't try to change mine, because we are both aware that the likelihood of either of those things is slim to nil. Deal?" She asked, leaning forward for a handshake.

He eyed her extended arm suspiciously, breaking into a smile when she began to waggle it impatiently. "C'mon, Clark, my arm's about to fall off!" She complained, and he obliged, keeping up the professional façade as he shook her hand briskly.

She was still smiling when a stormy expression crossed Clark's face. "But I don't want to hear about it…_if _things go badly—in a non-deadly way, of course." He added for good measure.

She smiled grimly, retracting her hand and rising to her feet. "Duly noted. These lips are sealed."

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	18. Raid and Reciprocation

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**FLASHBACK**

"I feel skanky," Chloe complained to her reflection. Ah, you really know you're going screwy when you start to talk to yourself. She looked at her slinky teal dress with distaste, pulling at a strand of hair artfully. The bra she was currently harnessed into was fighting an uphill battle against gravity and the dress, in her mind, left little to the imagination. In actuality, however, her get-up was appropriate and even borderline modest, the hem brushed the bottom of her kneecaps and her cleavage was presentable.

She felt a pang of impracticality as she studied her features in the mirror, plucking a stray eyebrow. She tended to feel mildly superficial when she primped for a date, Chloe was unaccustomed to spending countless hours pampering herself and attempting to achieve optimal attractiveness. She, however, spent the day chasing down an interviewee, fighting tooth and nail for her desired topic and arguing for fifteen minutes with a cocky reporter. She was only able to escape a half hour before she was due to go out.

Lex was a real gentleman. He had informed her, in less words, of course, that he was perfectly willing to go back to the way things used to be, and he was not anticipating ant type of response in regard of his statement. Still, despite his promise to put it behind them, Chloe felt oddly deflated by this proclamation. In a typical fashion, she decided to overcompensate.

"You look gorgeous," Lex said, wrapping an arm around her neck and smiling at her through the mirror. She jumped, surprised by his sudden entrance.

"I need a squeakier door, I keep getting caught unawares." She teased, taking his hand and giving in an affectionate squeeze. She stepped away from him, dropping to her knees to fish a pair of strappy heels out from under her bed. "Where are we off to? Paris, Rome, Outback Steakhouse?" She asked, extending her legs and wriggling on pantyhose.

His mouth quirked into a half smile as he habitually straightened her desk area and tossed various items of clothing into her empty hamper. "I was thinking about that new place downtown, Chez Francois, what do you think?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Chloe was otherwise occupied before shoving a dog eared Polaroid of she and Clark into the dark abyss of her drawer.

"Do we have reservations? I'm friendly with a food critic and he informs me that it's next to impossible to get into." She said, almost forgetting that she was talking to _the _Lex Luthor.

He shrugged, turning to help her into her heels. "LuthorCorp helped finance its grand opening, I've got a permanent table on reserve I did inform _Francois_ of my intentions so there would be no mix up." He said as though it were the most natural thing in the world. He let his hand linger on her ankle for a bit longer than necessary, and Chloe felt a perceptible change in the atmosphere almost immediately as he slid it up past her knee.

"Oh, well, I keep forgetting that I'm dating a gazillionaire." She teased, slapping his shoulder jokingly. He stood up, gallantly bringing her to her feet as well.

"You know what the best part is?" He asked, leaning against her and draping an arm around her waist. She blushed slightly, smiling coyly.

"Hmm, I don't know. But I bet you're willing to tell me." She said, interrupted as he pressed his mouth to hers.

"We can miss all the reservations we want," he kissed her again, this time with an edge on it. More than willing to respond, she threw her arm around his neck and passionately reciprocated, stepping backward and stumbling onto the bed.

She tugged his tie and kicked his feet out from under him so she wasn't alone in her sober clumsiness. "As much as I would love to be obnoxious and blow off our sort-of reservation, but it took so damn long to put all this crap on." She said, gesturing to her skin tight dress and eyeing her exasperating thigh-highs.

He loosened his tie and kissed her again. "I bet it would take a lot quicker to take it off. We could time it if you want," he suggested innocently, plucking a high heel from her left foot and dropping it to the carpet.

Chloe glanced at her bedside clock with mock thoughtfulness. "Well, I don't really mind if it takes a little bit longer than that, but if you're up to the challenge so am I." She grinned, kicking off her remaining shoe before leaning back...

They exceeded their time limit by quite a bit, but a few minutes in neither one was keeping track anymore. "I wonder if the restaurant's still open." Chloe pondered aloud at twenty past eleven, pulling on Lex's fingers mindlessly.

He smiled sardonically, resting his chin in the nook of her shoulder. "I could call in a few favors from Frank, hell I could even get him to come here. I mean, your kitchen isn't used to being cooked in, but I bet he could break it in." His smile only widened as she swatted him playfully. "But you're more of a takeout kind of woman, despite my best attempts."

Chloe sat up, hiking the sheet up to her chin as she assessed her hunger. "Speaking of my relatively unhealthy eating habits, I have some Hagan Daaz in the freezer, do you want some?" She asked, sliding off the mattress draped in the silk sheets Lex had sneaked in while she was out. "You, stay." She ordered as though commanding a dog. She even rubbed his head for good measure.

"Contray to popular belief, you don't get three wishes, you know." He warned as she skipped out the door, wearing nothing but a smile and her linens. She was never quite comfortable flitting about naked in her own apartment. She attributed it to a sense of modesty, but if she were to be completely honest she would admit that she was constantly wary of Clark materializing.

After walking in on them he had been careful to call diligently, but neither of them were used to the adjustment. Ever since they were in their teens the pair of them pretty much disregarded the others privacy, it was one of the downsides of being sole confidants. There was always an easy sense of belonging and it was strange to have to put limitations on that. Chloe sensed that Clark felt the same, but he did his best to ignore the burgeoning relationship between she and Lex.

But through it all Chloe found that she hadn't been able to stop smiling for a long time, and the cynicism she expressed to Lois seemed to fade when she was around Lex. She could see the ongoing debate in his eyes as she brought the ice cream carton into the bedroom with a pair of spoons. On the one hand he wanted to keep living through the honeymoon period, and on the other the idea of spilling chocolate on the 400 dollar sheets was too much to bear. He settled for pulling up her bargain-brand comforter as protection.

She snuggled in, graciously ignoring his eccentricities. "Have you noticed that whenever I get all dolled up for a night on the town we always stay in?" She asked, swallowing a brownie chunk. He nodded, following suit and diving into the carton with equal enthusiasm but less proficiency, repeatedly dropping his potential portion back into the box. "Leave that to the experts, Luthor." She chided, artfully scooping a spoonful of ice cream onto her spoon and passing it to him.

"I'll need some proper training in order to achieve your level of skill. I can only hope that you're willing to share your wisdom." He remarked slyly, leaning forward for another spoonful.

She laughed, scooping out another hunk of brownie laden chocolate deliciousness. "I feel like I'm feeding a baby," she remarked, purposefully smearing a bit of ice cream on his cheek. "Oh, you got a little something there."

"Well, it seems as though we are regressing into childhood so I guess that's fitting." He said with a smile, wiping the mess from his face. "I think I'll try to feed myself, though I don't mind the whole being taken care of thing. You constantly surprise me, Sullivan." He teased.

She passed the carton to him, licking her spoon in an incredibly unladylike manner. "Yeah, I'm chockfull of surprises, all right." She said wryly. "By the way..." Chloe began in a businesslike manner. "I think I kinda love you, too." She said conversationally, and Lex dropped his spoon.

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PRESENT

Chloe woke up with a slight headache, tangled in Clark's arms, thankful that they were fully clothed. She tried to sneakily maneuver her way out of his casual grip without waking him and was surprised with her success. She was so used to being thwarted in these attempts that she only did so out of habit rather than necessity. She checked the clock, panicked at the time, and made sure that Clark was still breathing before she turned to leave for work.

He stirred, rolling over and looking up to see Chloe's retreating figure. "Chlo? What time is it?" He yawned, hiking the comforter up to his chin.

She turned around, smiling halfheartedly. "It's ten to eight, and I've got to get to work. Go back to sleep, I bets its been days since you've slept through the night." She remarked, and his sheepish grimace suggested that she hit the nail right on the head.

"I haven't slept in my own bed for a week," he admitted, pressing his face into her floral pillow for good measure. She surveyed her bed fleetingly, silently marveling at the fact that she and Clark were able to fit into that standard prison-sized mattress.

"I won't be home for a while, but feel free to hang around. Go back to bed," she repeated before stepping out the door.

The surveillance cameras Lex equipped in the main entrance of her building caught Chloe sprinting out the front door, hair slightly mussed and still wearing the same wrinkled blouse from the day before. One of his men, as usual, informed him of Ms. Sullivan's whereabouts. "Did Clark Kent vacate the premises?" He questioned lazily, carefully assessing a new bill meant for approval.

His lackey hesitated, knowing that President Luthor was much like Ceasar in regards that he tended to shoot the messenger. "No...well, we didn't catch him on the camera, at least." He was quick to amend when Lex's eyes flickered up, suddenly intent on the conversation.

He knew perfectly well that Clark could have easily left through a window, or fled from the rooftop, but he couldn't fight the insane pang of jealousy that twisted in his gut. No, it was more than a _pang_, the feeling was nearly overwhelming. He hated Clark with an intensity he couldn't quite understand. He wanted him gone, wiped from the planet. And he wanted to be the one to do it.

He couldn't believe how pathetic he was, clinging on to the hope that Chloe would some day come to regard him in the same manner she used to. He was the Commander-In-Chief of the most powerful country in the world, and here he was, obsessing over some little reporter girl.

At least now he had good reason to surveil her; from what Lana had told him, time was of the essence. "Bring the men in, anyway. Confiscate Ms. Sullivan's personal computer and search every inch of the apartment for that paper. If Kent is in there, use any means necessary to detain him. My men are already aware of the...extenuating circumstances surrounding Clark Kent."

**Hope you guys liked it!**


	19. Misplaced Poker Face

**Hope you guys like this! It's the third anniversary of when I started this story! Hopefully I'll finish it before there's a fourth :)**

_"It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces."_

--Bridget Jones

Chloe's newest edit merited an "hmph," from Symone without any real criticism, and she later overhead her demanding that the piece be placed near to the front. Lois dropped by for a little bit of lunch, filling her cousin in on juicy interoffice gossip that Chloe was too busy and indifferent to notice from her own observations.

After years of being faced with overwhelming odds and strange situations Chloe learned to prioritize her emotions, allowing her panic for the free world to ebb as she gave herself wholly to her fear of the certain repercussions if she did not finish her article on time. Instead of obsessing about the frustratingly confusing alleged clue Lana forked over, she forced herself to ponder on life's other complications…Clark, for example. What was going on with her and Clark?

Teenage Chloe swooned inside realistic adult Chloe, telling her older counterpart to throw caution to the wind and leave pessimism behind; just do what she always wanted to do. As Chloe went from high school student to college to reporter she always figured that she and Clark just weren't meant to be. It was like her emotions were an ocean that slowly but surely trickled into a lake...the water was still there, but it was different. She had firmly filed Clark into the 'platonic' folder and never...well, okay, _rarely _looked back. Trying to imagine her life without him was next to impossible, and she had spent so long fighting the butterflies every time he touched her that she never really realized that they never fully disappeared.

Focusing was next to impossible, and she did what she had never done before and disconnected the telephone after a third distracting phone call, leaning closer to the computer screen and willing herself to _focus_.

She broke her vow to not look at the mysterious paper barely an hour after she had made it, plugging the strange series into her computer despite her previous night's efforts. And she yielded the same results, as well.

Chloe glanced up as Lois burst through the door, her face red and her hair in a state of disarray. "Chloe!? What are you still doing here?" She exclaimed, hand pressed to her chest in an attempt to keep her heart from pounding out of her ribcage.

Chloe furrowed her eyebrows, rising from her seat in confusion. "What...what are you talking about? Why wouldn't I...what's wrong?" She demanded, and luckily enough for her Lois was more than willing to oblige.

"You know Dick, right? Well, through one of his contacts he heard that there was a warrant to search and seize in your apartment, and I don't know how the hell this happened, but stupid Clark had to be the righteous hero, per usual...what the hell was he doing at your place anyway Well, long story short, he's currently a prisoner of the government."

Chloe stood still, waiting tensely for the punch line that never came. "Can you cover for me?" She asked finally, reaching for her sweater and snatching her purse. Lois barely nodded before her cousin sprinted out the door.

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**FLASHBACK**

It was the perfect day for flying. The sun was perfect; the brightness was too overpowering for human eyes and the warmth on his skin was a feeling beyond any other comparison. It was the most raw and dehumanizing experience he had ever encountered, it was all so involuntary that he no longer had to guide himself through the rays of sunlight, his body simply turned as the clouds shifted.

The power that always felt so latent when he had his human front on pulsed through his veins when he inhibitions lowered that Clark didn't even realize that he was following any decisive course. Eyes open, he instinctively traveled through a cluster of cumulus and dipped in order to avoid a patch of clear sky. It wasn't until he focused his superhuman eyes downward that he he realize what he was drawn toward. And yet there she was, and it was a miracle Clark managed to see her from the distance, but the sad truth was that he was more in tune with her than anyone else.

Clark took a careful nosedive, concealing himself behind the skyscrapers before careening into an empty alleyway landing neatly on his feet before sprinting into the busy street, attempting to catch up. He caught a glint of her hair yards ahead and called out her name. "Chloe...you're actually going?" Clark asked, amazed, following the petite blond as she weaved through the crowd.

She laughed, reflexively grabbing his wrist and pulling him behind her. "Wow, Clark, where'd you come from? Patrolling the skies again?" She asked, taking his brooding silence as a confirmation. "Well, seeing as I'm sprinting toward the building with a clipboard in hand the logical answer would be yes, Clark, I am going. Why do you ask?" She remarked, body checking the revolving door with all of her weight and dragging Clark in the same section as her.

"You could've just said yes," He muttered, helping her rotate the door with his considerable strength. "Isn't that some kind of conflict of interest? I mean...covering a press conference that your boyfriend happens to be an active part of?" He asked, speaking with hushed urgency that would have been far more effective had it not been for the constant buzz of conversation surrounding them.

She shrugged and seeing as he couldn't see her face, Clark could only imagine her expression. "Yeah, I guess it is. But I was assigned the politics beat and the only way to get out of it would be to tell my section editor that I'm quote unquote bumping uglies with a major political figure, which would not be a wise course of action seeing as Chuck used to be a gossip columnist. I don't want to be this month's locker room joke." She explained bleakly, flashing her press badge and artfully maneuvering through the throng as though it were an art form.

"What're you doing here, anyway?" Chloe asked, pulling out her pen and holding her writing pad at the ready.

She glanced over in amusement as Clark's eyes focused immediately on a spot on the city hall's tarnished carpet. "Well, uh, I didn't exactly think this through, Chlo." He admitted, noting the flickering smile on her face.

"One of your many vices, and I've got to say that this one is the most detrimental to you becoming some sort of one-man world police." She said with a smirk, elbowing Clark gently. He nudged her back, smiling and fixing his eyes on her face in the stead of some imperfection of the building. She locked her sights on him as well, not noticing that he let his arm linger for a moment longer than necessary. But the next moment the assembly room broke into applause, and Chloe only had eyes for one man.

His counterpart was unimportant in the scheme of things, years later his face faded in Clark's mind and the name was only vaguely familiar. Lex had a presence of supreme authority, he sauntered onto the stage, smiling at the audience, arm raised and waving. "Hello," he greeted, without a microphone, and the cheers amplified as his grin broadened. Clark tried in vain to catch Chloe's eye, but she was transfixed and beyond his reach. He moved back infinitesimally, reluctantly ceasing their physical contact.

The moderator leaned forward into his microphone, his tenseness sharply contrasting Lex's cool demeanor. "This is an open public forum, which we realize is slightly atypical, but please remain civilized..." He warned, only to be cut off by the swell of chaotic chatter. Countless members of press began shouting, trying to catch the newly elected governor Luthor and Mr. Daniels, waving their credentials frantically, nearly exploding with anticipation. Daniels pointed to an exuberant young man who nearly peed himself from sheer joy.

"Governor, what is your plan of action concerning the drastic escalation of taxes immediately before you came into office?" He questioned quickly, pen quivering in anticipation. Lex smiled, doing his best to be personable and calm as he answered the question straight off the bat, no political meanderings or off-topic tangents. Chloe's hand moved as he spoke, and he caught her eye for a moment before turning to the next question. She felt her stomach do a high-school esque flip-flop before she was able to focus intently on the task at hand, for the moment forgetting that the only other man who ever made her feel so topsy-turvy was standing by her side.

Clark watched Lex with a more watchful eye that was necessary, observing the inflections in his voice, the expressions he made when surprised and his body language in general. He caught a few side glimpses toward Chloe, but he mostly remained professionally engaged throughout the entire affair. At one point Chloe leaned toward him and whispered in his ear, "you don't have to stay here, I know it's pretty dull," but Clark was transfixed.

Chloe's arm flew up, calm and collected in comparison to the jumping children surrounding them. Daniels gestured toward her, and Lex's eyes lit up ever so slightly at the sight. "If it's your general plan to lower the taxes of the middle class, then why did you recently approve a bill for the contrary?" She inquired, eyes focused on her interviewee and hand poised over her clipboard.

Lex nodded slightly, furrowing his brow as though the question was his top priority. "My plan of action is greatly geared around giving the lower and middle class a reduced tax burden, but you can't build Rome in a day. We have many different bills circulating throughout the circuit in hopes of undoing some of the damage the previous regime has done to the economy, and that involves altering some of the reforms." He stated articulately.

Chloe nodded, and if Lex were close enough to see the expression on her face he would have known he was in for it. "So, if you'll allow me to get this straight, you believe that former governor Scott is to blame for you expressly going against your word and signing exactly the type of bill you chastised during your campaign?" She asked, feigning confusion. Lex dropped his hands and looked at her expressly with wonder, shushing the moderator when he tried to intervene and scold Chloe.

"No, it's quite alright, I understand why it's difficult to see _how _this exactly is working for the average citizen, I'd be quite happy to discuss it in an interview after the press conference. If there is still any uncertainty, feel free to address it afterward." He offered, and Clark marveled at the fact that everyone else in attendance could be so oblivious of the raw chemistry that flowed seamlessly from one to the other. Caught in the crosshairs, even he felt as though he were intruding on something intimate, and they were surrounded by dozens of others.

Chloe shrugged, wielding her pen as a weapon. "What's wrong with addressing this inconsistency now?" She questioned innocently, shrugging and staring at him innocently.

Lex looked right back, and his smile widened as the moderator spoke into the microphone, "and this concludes our question and answer segment. Feel free to write the governor with any questions, comments, or concerns." Neither Lex nor Chloe broke eye contact as the press chattered and attempted to shout out more questions to no avail.

Clark tugged on her sleeve earnestly, attempting to protect her from the swarm of buzzing reporters who were pushing toward the door and aggressively shoving Chloe and Clark. She shook his hand off and turned, "you go ahead, I think I'll stay here for a little while." She said as Lex beckoned her with a discreet hand motion.

Chloe smirked at the expression on Clark's face, swatting his shoulder playfully. "C'mon, Kent! I've got a potential interview to get to. You should go back to saving mankind, maybe save some little damsel in distress from nefarious villains. It'll be fun, I'll see you later. You still want to meet up to look over some more of those fabric swatches tomorrow afternoon?" She waved as he nodded, skipping up the steps of the stage and disappearing behind the drawn curtains.

Clark exhaled heavily, employing his x-ray vision momentarily before cringing at his own invasive behavior and walking toward the door. He ignored the burgeoning feelings that came near to overpowering him nearly every time he saw Chloe and Lex together. It was always easier to ignore when he extracted himself from the situation and allowed other thoughts and actions to occupy his mind. He didn't like having Lex back in her life any more than he did when he first discovered their relationship. It took much more resolve to not turn around and watch after Chloe than he would ever want to admit to and the yearning still tugged at him as he stepped out of the building and away from her.

All the while Lex stood behind stage, arms crossed as he awaited Chloe's arrival. "Not bad," she stated objectively, her voice finding him before she did. "I think that most of the room left half in love with you." He followed the sound of her voice and smiled sardonically.

"Yes, I'm sure. All except Clark Kent and that mealy-mouthed reporter for the Tribune. Why exactly was Clark there?" He asked, trying and failing at sounding nonchalant.

"He works at the paper too," well, it was true, even though that was not his reason for being there.

"And I'm sure that's the only reason he came to the forum regarding a man he despised." Lex remarked before nearly walking straight into her.

"Yeah, he's a real go-getter." She said sarcastically.

Unhappy with the route the conversation had taken, Lex made it his duty to change the subject. "I enjoyed your question, it was argumentative and unsettling." He commented, loosening his tie.

She smirked, rolling her eyes. "And you dodged it just like any other politician, so about that interview..." Lex cut her off, seizing her by the shoulders and kissing her hard on the mouth. Taken by surprise, she nonetheless responded quickly and pushed him up against the nearby wall, pulling at his pristine suit jacket. "Ha, ha, nice try, Governor Luthor. You won't get out of your interview _that _easily." She said before pressing her lips to his once again in a counterproductive manner.

He laughed, disentangling himself from her. "On the contrary, one of the many things I like about you is your tenacity and dedication to your job. Feel free to ask away." He offered, extending his arms in an open gesture and settling into a nearby stool. Chloe obliged, clicking on her tape recorder and aggressively but professionally inquiring for a quarter of an hour straight.

When Chloe ran out of questions, she turned to an old standby. "The next time we get into an argument wherein you are totally and absolutely at fault, how do you intend on weaseling out of it?"

He laughed, surprised by the question, before replying. "Well, that's a gotcha question if I've ever heard one. Well, I have no defined course of action I intend on traveling the next time I screw things up irreparably. I already used the only get-out-of-jail-free card I had stored in my back pocket. And, I'll admit, it's pretty dusty."

Chloe nodded in agreement, pretending to jot down his response. "Yes, yes, of course. I should've realized you haven't thought that far in advance." She teased, tucking her pen behind her ear. "I'll hazard a guess, maybe next fight you'll ask me to move in, and then when we argue about how many drawers I should get you'll give me an extra room or something." It was his turn to roll his eyes.

"No, nothing so typical. I'll agree with the moving in together idea but I'll raise you a puppy the next time I act like a complete idiot. And I think that maybe after that I'll get your jerk of an editor fired and perhaps publicly humiliated. But I'd never give you just a room, I'd get you a wing. And I'd like to think that I'd do that without preceding it with some moronic and misguided display." He explained.

Chloe averted her eyes, embarrassed, but Lex stared forward nonetheless. "And after that, I think I'd ask you to marry me." He blurted out, taking in the surprise that colored her eyes as he spoke. "But, as I'm sure you know, I'd do that now if I thought there was any chance that you would say yes." He elaborated.

Chloe smiled uncertainly, leaning back uncomfortably. "Yeah, I'm sure. But that's one of the big guns. You probably want to save that one for later." Lex was already shaking his head before she finished.

"No, if you'd call my bluff I'd get down on one knee right now. Chloe, I'm not in the habit of telegraphing my punches but I'm trying very hard to not treat our relationship as a business transaction, that's what I did when we first started seeing each other and it didn't work out very well. I want to lay all my cards out on the table and make it very clear that I'm not _proposing _per se, but I want you to know that that is the desired end result. I can see you, right now, fidgeting and probably fighting the urge to run away and pretend it never happened, and I don't want to rush you." He stood, blustering and slightly irrational.

Chloe took in the spectacle with wide and disbelieving eyes. He was right; she wanted to flee and could hardly believe that their little meeting could have produced such a declaration. It was out of character and far too honest an admission. "I was raised, accustomed to getting what I want and even learning how subtle manipulations oftentimes work far better than blatant honesty, but I don't want to play games anymore. This is not a question, so I'm not expecting an answer. You value truth, so here it is." He finished, gesturing lamely.

She felt like a deer caught in the headlights, uncertain how to react and paralyzed by fear. She never fancied herself as being fearful of commitment, but she quickly realized that this was only because she had never been faced with it before. Chloe always imagined, possibly by hope rather than evidence, that Lex was not interested in making a lifelong commitment, but when faced with reality she conceded that it made perfect sense. He was a man of business, and what better way to secure the future than to extend a contract?

Chloe finally spoke, uncertain how long she had been silent. "Wow, you kind of blindsided me there, Lex. But...I'm glad you told me, and you're right, I'm not ready for that sort of thing but I want you to know, I really love being with you but it's only been a few months. We can talk about all that later." He nodded in agreement, a fierce and misplaced look of indifference pasted haphazardly onto his face. His poker face wasn't so good, after all.

**Tell me what you think! I really love this story and I appreciate all of your reviews. Continue to review, please!**


	20. Truth and Tribulations

**Please tell me what you guys think! I really appreciate your feedback.**

She withdrew every penny she had in her bank account and thanked God for her connections. She checked in with the police station but their mouths were so sewn up she couldn't even get a confirmation or denial. There was a growing sense of unease swelling in her stomach, the feeling she attributed to Lex. This whole situation reeked of Lex, and she was uncertain of his motivations, or what it was that he hoped to accomplish by having Clark detained, but she wanted to have all of her bases covered.

The guard at the gate's blank face registered surprise when she drove up and requested admittance, and she knew that he only checked her ID as a knee jerk reaction, and this only strengthened her resolve. Lex wanted her here for reasons unknown, and for once she found herself willing to play whatever the hell kind of game he had planned if it would expedite Clark's release

"Here's your visitor's badge, Ms. Sullivan." Said the guard, handing her a ready-made identification tag. She rolled her eyes, wondering how Lex was going to profess 'what a surprise' it was to see her with a straight face. She was escorted through the door and down several windy corridors, the guard leading her moving with such a fast pace that she suspected he hoped to confuse her. His obvious tactics made her do just the opposite; memorize every hallway, all of the generic paintings and nondescript hangings.

It was the eighth corridor that did the trick, and before Chloe realized what was happening her 'escort' opened a door and roughly guided her through it, bringing her face to face with the man himself. He glanced at his watch conspicuously before gesturing politely to a vacant chair. She shook her head imperceptibly and merely relaxed into a hostile arm-cross. "Were you stuck in traffic?" He asked, ignoring her blatant refusal to seat herself.

It was the same office in which he had conducted his _business _with Lana Lang, but the dynamic was startlingly different. "So you're not even going to pretend that you're surprised to see me?" She asked.

He shook his head, smiling smugly. "No, when I heard that Clark had been apprehended I knew that I'd see you. I'm actually surprised it took you this long. He's been in custody for...going on three hours. I suspected you'd waltz in this door after an hour." He said, mock disappointment filling his voice.

"What are you holding him on?" She demanded, despite her previous decision to play along. He didn't seem upset though, on the contrary he seemed amused.

"_I'm _not doing anything, actually I am doing my best to control the situation." He frowned, a worry line digging into his forehead. "Clark really needs to learn how to control his temper. No charges have been filed as of yet thanks to my skillful interference, but he's under suspicion for the assault of three federal officers and wreckless endangerment. Whether or not the charges stick is entirely up to you." He said with a lightness that did not fit the conversation.

Chloe quirked her eyebrow, digging into her purse and tossing an envelope at him. "It's fifteen thousand eight-hundred thirty-two dollars. If you want the eleven cents I have it in my change purse." She said wryly, watching him closely. He pushed the envelope away without bothering to glance at it.

He surprised her by laughing. "Money? Did you honestly just throw money at me?"

She pursed her lips, trying to conceal her embarrassment. "I figured your goons needed some compensation."

He smiled, eyeing the envelope meaningfully. "Put it away, money's not the problem nor the solution." He stated smugly, taking in her burning cheeks with sadistic pleasure.

She rolled her eyes and tapped her foot for impatient effect. "Okay, I'll bite. What's the problem, and how exactly can I make it _disappear_?" She asked,

"Well, I can see you're in no mood to sit—_stand _around and chat, so I'll do my best to cut to the chase." Chloe rolled her eyes in as unladylike a manner she could manage. She couldn't be certain, but she thought she could see his jaw flex infinitesimally. He hated when she acted like a petulant child, hence she _loved _acting like one in his presence.

He steepled his fingers and gathered his thoughts. "Well then, could you please _cut to it?_" She asked with more decorum than she would have thought herself capable of.

He nodded once before beginning, "I have three requests to ask of you. If you are able to complete said requests then Clark will be released without so much as a dot on his permanent record." He promised, raising his hands as though to wipe them clean of any wrongdoing.

"And what are these _requests?_" She asked sarcastically, propping her elbow up against the wall and leaning back leisurely. She was certain her relaxed manner would vex him more than anything she could say.

He acted as though she hadn't spoken, "for you they should be quite simple. First, and naturally, of course, I would like you to return what it is Lana so unceremoniously took from me. Ah, the mistakes you make when you're young. I never should have trusted her." Chloe's facial expression remained the same, but she swore that her heart skipped a beat.

She decided that feigning innocence would get her nowhere, so she simply nodded. "I'll get it for you. I guess I shouldn't even bother asking…but I'm gonna anyway. What the hell is it?" She asked, hoping that the bewilderment she felt was not evident.

He smiled humorlessly and shrugged. "I really have no idea what significance, if any, it holds. I'm just as curious about its contents as you appear to be." Strangely, Chloe felt as though he were telling the truth.

"How did this even happen, I mean, how did Clark…" She trailed off, frowning in confusion.

Lex relished dangling the one parcel of information over her head that she would bother jumping for, but the feeling was hollow. He didn't like the attachment that seemed to have only strengthened over the years, and he certainly didn't like the look in her eyes when she talked about him.

No matter, he decided to answer her. He knew that if he didn't, Clark would. "There was a warrant to search your apartment, and Clark failed to open the door for the half dozen federal officers. They, of course, came in anyway, and Clark kicked up a bit of a fuss. Needless to say, there was a scene, a few punches thrown, and he pushed one of the officers into a curious neighbor, knocking her halfway down the stairwell. We have ascertained thus far that she has no inclination to sue."

Chloe smirked grimly, certain that money had exchanged hands in order for this to take place. "Why were your men in my apartment?" He didn't bother to contest her use of the phrase _your men_, knowing that her powers of observation would not be swayed by any argument he would make.

"They were under strict orders to take your computer. There has been some concern of illegal activity, and the tech team is currently analyzing your hard drive." He said with ease. Chloe felt a spike of anger, enraged by the complete violation of her privacy, but it was far from a surprise.

"And what sort of _illegal activities _was I suspected of? Trafficking kiddie porn?" She asked sarcastically, certain that it ascertained to the little piece of paper currently burning a hole in her pocket.

He smiled humorlessly and shrugged off her question. "I don't know the specifics, only the official reason listed on the warrant." He lied, but it barely counted because she knew it was a lie as well.

"Are your men ransacking my office as we speak?" She asked with hollow certainty, wondering how Lois would react to the men in black casting her aside and ripping her drawers from her desk. His eyebrows knit together slightly, so slightly in fact that if anyone else were to observe him she was certain it would not have registered. Lex was always surprised by how quickly her mind jumped from issue to issue: Clark arrested, apartment searched, office investigated.

"Yes. I want that paper, it's certainly piqued my interest." He admitted, shrugging in an attempt to offset the honesty.

Chloe nodded, as though unsurprised by his admission. "I'll get it to you, if it'll help Clark." She added quickly, averting his eyes. "What else are you going to try and leverage into this unfortunate incident?" She questioned, all reporter now.

He bristled, uncomfortable with Chloe being the one to set the conditions of their conversation. As usual, she was the only one who could somehow take a situation in which she was vulnerable and turn it on its head.

He was troubled by her level of observation, he thought that he had succeeded in eliminating any 'tells' from his person but she was always able to read him like a book anyway. Here he was, years after their bitter break up, and in a strange way it was like no time had passed at all. She was the same wonderfully sarcastic and intelligent woman he loved back then, and even in his current position of power he felt an odd vulnerability that he couldn't make sense of when he was around her.

"Well, you certainly get right down to the point." He said, gesturing to the chair once again, as though enticing her to sit would somehow even the playing field. She ignored him once more. "Well, what would certainly expedite Clark's release would be you agreeing to do an illuminating article on my foreign policies and the recent bills I have passed...in a favorable light, of course." He added, laughing lightly.

She frowned, though Chloe knew that she should have expected this. Nothing would be a bigger ego boost for Lex than reading her fawning over him via newspaper article, but she still couldn't stop herself from cringing. "I don't think even I could put a positive spin on those disasters. If you're willing to spring for a lobotomy I think somehow I'd be able to handle it." She commented, pursing her lips.

He frowned, steepling his fingers and nodding. "Of course you can handle it, I'm sure you can do anything for Clark." He remarked with uncharacteristic sarcasm, surprising her with the resounding bitterness echoing in every word.

Chloe didn't quite understand why, but she found herself being more honest with Lex than she intended. "Lana came to talk to me, which I'm sure you know all about, she said that you were trying to destroy the world, or something of an equal dramatic impact. Was she being Ms. Melodramatic per usual, or was there any weight to her assertion?" She asked, feeling a wonderful thrill as his usually mask-like face contorted into shock. Just when Lex thought he knew her next move, she pulled the rug straight out from underneath him.

He leaned forward instinctively, resisting the urge to flinch when Chloe stepped back. "Lana Lang is a silly girl with delusions of grandeur and great importance." He snapped, coming to his feet. "I'm sure that to her it would be agreeable to feed her self-confidence with such drivel. If she were to believe that she was important enough to know the inner workings of something so sinister, to embroil herself in such a ridiculous conspiracy theory she could vent her frustrations on being such a small and relatively unimportant person." He changed tacks so quickly that Chloe was confused for a moment.

"You know the federal officers Clark unceremoniously attacked? Every last one of them mentioned how very strong he is. I think 'inhuman' was the phrase one of them used." He stated with faux thoughtfulness, pacing restlessly.

"You know, if Rogers hadn't hit the door frame and splintered it, I'm pretty sure he would have crushed your neighbor. Now, _Chloe, _how exactly does a regular guy happen to have apparently supernatural abilities? I wonder how the press would feel if they heard that Clark Kent had such an explosive temper and potentially a _steroid _problem?" He stated mockingly, taking sadistic pleasure from her look of surprised.

"From what I hear, there is no way a _human_ being could've carried on the way he did, defending the roost, I guess. Sometimes I wonder why Clark and Lana ever broke up, they seem perfect for each other. They both are liabilities, and neither knows where to draw the line." He stated coldly, shoulders hunched and palms pressed to his desk.

Chloe gritted her teeth. "Is that what you wanted to do? Threaten Clark? Need I remind you what happened the last time you tried to take him on? Why the hell are you still doing this, you've got to have realized by now that this whole paranoid business is an exercise in futility, even for you. Just...stop already. I'm begging you, I am being pathetic and begging you, Lex."

"If I knew that all I needed to do to make you beg was to threaten your precious Clark I would've done that a long time ago." He snapped.

Chloe crossed her arms, fighting the tears of anger that were threatening to overpower her. "No, you don't get to do that. Not after all you've done, you don't get to act like it was his fault...what happened was your fault, completely and one-hundred percent." He opened his mouth to object, but she pushed right on. "Take accountability for once in your life. You've always acted like life is something that just happened to you, not that you're the one who controls your future."

The look in Lex's eyes was murderous. "You are still as pigheaded as always. You're an intelligent woman, don't pull that shit on me. You know that the only people either of us could possibly have a future with is each other, and you still pretend, you still ignore what's blatantly right in front of your face. Yes, I may _control my future _but I can't do that alone, and I can't do that with anyone else."

Chloe rolled her eyes, shifting her weight. "You're the only reason you're alone."

He laughed humorlessly, slapping his knee. "Oh, yes, that must be it. Can you blame me for being curious? For wanting to know, to understand what was happening?"

"You can make all the excuses you want, but don't pretend to be ignorant. I just…I don't understand why you still try to delude yourself. It's been years, and you've won. Don't you get it? You win! You get to blackmail me, you can dangle Clark's fate over my head so how come that's not enough for you?" She asked, her eyes alight with fury.

He groaned in irritation. "And what is it that I _win_? The only reason you're even here is because of _him_! You never would have showed up if it wasn't for his hero complex. And when he acts like a petulant child you coddle him and try to fix it so he doesn't have to suffer the consequences of his own actions." He snarled, rising to his feet briefly before settling back down into his chair.

He had told himself, promised himself that he would be calm, be rational, come out the better in this confrontation and he was failing miserable. "You have an infinite capacity for forgiveness when it concerns Clark, so what exactly are the spoils of my alleged victory?" He asked palms flat and quivering on his desk as he attempted to control the volume of his voice.

"You keep on comparing yourself to him like there's some sort of association between the two of you. Don't you...how can you even try to defend what you did? I trusted you…I, I loved you and you completely and totally disregarded that. You're the one who through it away, you betrayed me!" She shouted, not realizing that her voice was raised.

"Do you really think that's comparable to Clark overreacting in his usual self-righteous way and you, once again, taking advantage of the situation because that's what you are!? You're selfish and merciless…and a complete opportunist who would crush anyone that was ever stupid enough to stand in your way."

Lex waited before speaking, trying to remain calm and feeling erratic spikes of anger coursing through his veins despite his best efforts. "This is rich coming from you, like you've ever let anyone…excepting Clark, that is, get in your way." He said maliciously.

"He is constantly standing in your way and you're too blind to see it. He's a puppy, a strong and volatile one, certainly, and yet here you are defending him. You could never have a future with him; he's consumed with a baseless and self-righteous motives and clearly psychotic desires to act as a sort of world police." He absorbed her look of unabashed shock with great pleasure.

"Yes, of course I know that he's the famed 'Superman' patrolling the world looking for trouble in a ridiculous getup. You can't think that this sanctimonious pursuit of justice is a wise way to spend a life. You're _nothing _like him; you have greater resources at your disposal than brute strength and pompous convictions. _You_ understand the way the world and the way it operates. When are you going to realize that you and I are one in the same?" She rolled her eyes at the comparison.

"Yes, clearly we are two peas in a pod. I didn't come here to have you shove some more nonsense down my throat..." She began, but he cut her off before she could continue her intended rant.

"I really do wonder where you would be if you didn't constantly have to cover for Clark. It really is quite interesting...I'll just never know why it is that you insist on safeguarding some interplanetary assassin." Chloe cracked her knuckles out of reflex, knowing that he was just trying to get a rise out of her and realizing that he was successful.

"Is that all you wanted to say, Lex? You just wanted to throw a curve ball so I'll get all wrapped up in righteous fury and forget all about the crumbling of the free world?" She asked, eyebrow quirked.

He stood up straight, staring at her straight on. "I was trying to segue into my third requirement for Clark's release, but I can see that the subtlety is lost on you."

She rolled her eyes, stepping forward brazenly. "Yeah, _subtlety_, that's what it is when you completely change the subject after tap dancing like Gene Kelly around my question. I'm not wired, you can give me a straight yes or no answer. What can I do about it anyway?" She shrugged, but both of them knew that she could do plenty about it.

Lex pressed a cool hand to his temple and groaned. "You drive me completely insane! Will you just let me direct the conversation for once?" He snarled.

She frowned dramatically, "Why change a winning formula?" Chloe asked, satisfied with his contorted expression. She had succeeded in breaking one of the strongest poker faces she had ever encountered. As far as she knew, she was the only person to ever put a dent in his facade and she found herself irrationally pleased that she still retained the ability to do so.

"You have so much untapped potential that you are frankly wasting playing reconnaissance with Clark Kent! If you weren't exerting so much effort in keeping his unnatural abilities a secret, who knows what you could be doing? Well, I'm giving you a chance to get away from that nonsense. We could use your investigative prowess. You're going to work at LuthorCorp, Chloe."

**REVIEW PLEASE! IT'S ALL I WANT!! And if anyone happens to read this, I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I have two ways this story could go, one where it ends pretty soon and another where it's longer. What's the preference of the readers? Please tell me! I don't want to drag this out if anyone's bored.**


	21. All's Fair

**Last chapter was my favorite, so I only hope that this measures up! I've been working hard to get this installment to you guys so please tell me what you think. **

**FLASHBACK**

Chloe flitted across the sidewalk, a box swinging in her arms. "Chlo, I need to know, have you visited Stepford lately?" Lois questioned with faux urgency, but her cousin only smiled passively in return.

What's gotten into you, Sullivan?" Lois asked, amazed by her cousin's personality transformation. Chloe seemed to be floating, and Lois found it mildly annoying, not because she wasn't happy for her, she just didn't like the cause. "Never mind, don't answer that, I don't need an anatomy lesson today." She recanted, smiling as Chloe's eyebrows flew up in shock.

"Wow, you're especially vulgar today, cuz. Any reason or are you just going for the shock factor?" She inquired teasingly as the pair headed toward Lois's apartment downtown.

Lois shook her head, slightly embarassed. "No, I'm just a bitter harpy. Pay no attention to the shrew behind the curtain."

Chloe whacked her with her purse. "That's not true, you're hardly a shrew. Harpy I don't object to, though." She added smilingly.

Lois laughed, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulders. "This is exactly what I'm talking about, you are bouncing around like Snow freaking White. At any moment I expect cartoon birds to chime in and join you for a chorus."

Chloe quirked her eyebrow, a smirk still alight in her features. "Yeah, I'm happy. Very, actually, but this isn't exactly a new development. I know, I know, you might miss the old jaded Chloe, but I promise you she's still under there. I'm certain she'll make an appearance sooner or later." Chloe promised.

Her cousin nodded in agreement, "Yes, but lately it's amplifying. Is Mr. Clean to blame for your personality taking this unusually positive turn?" She asked shrewdly.

Chloe shrugged, cheeks coloring. "I don't want to give him all the credit...but _some _credit is due." She admitted. "But this isn't about me and Lex, this is about you and your fancy new apartment." She said, shaking the heavy box in her arms. "By the way, does there happen to be a _Mr._ Fancy Apartment?" She asked, trying and failing at subtlety.

Lois shook her head emphatically, insisting that this was not the case. "If I ever find a Mr. Fancy Apartment you'll be the first to know. Well, I guess the third after me and my pretend mister." She said, skipping up the main stairwell and leaning against the front door, allowing her cousin to enter first.

"Well, I can't even think of an imaginary guy could even keep up with you. This is your third apartment in nine months!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Yeah, I could've had a screaming, stinky baby by now and all I've got is this lousy, rent-controlled, utilities included, fabulous apartment. Oh, wait, did I say lousy? I meant fantastic. My hunt is over." Lois said, interrupted by Chloe's groan.

"No! You've jinxed it. Now in two weeks you'll be asking me to take a long lunch to move you _out_ of your perfect apartment." She complained, clambering up the staircase onto the third floor.

"Lucky for me, and you're lunches, of course, I don't believe in jinxing or that sort of thing." Lois said, nudging her cousin with her hip as they approached the apartment door. "Listen, I'm gonna ask even though I'm not sure I want to know the answer. So...you and Lex?" She said as though it were a question.

"What about us?" Chloe asked warily.

Lois pushed through the door, placing her boxes onto the floor amongst the other packages. "This _thing _with you two...it's not just a thing. I mean, I know he...expressed interest in becoming more serious and, well, what exactly is going on with you guys? I'm sorry, I just don't really see it. I know he makes you happy, obviously, I just...is it okay that I'm asking?" Lois was embarrassed, and this was not a common occurrence.

Chloe nodded, clearly uncomfortable as well. "Yeah, of course you can. It's kind of nice to have someone to talk to and he, well, made his game plan abundantly clear." She said, pushing her hair behind her ear nervously as Lois busied herself stacking her new bookshelf. "Well, he sort of suggested that we...get married." Lois froze, book in hand, cocking her head.

"I think my awesome new apartment's acoustics must be off because I just heard something that you couldn't have possibly said. Care to repeat that?" Lois asked, voice relatively calm.

Chloe pressed her hand to her forehead, sinking into Lois's recliner. "You heard right. I mean, what am I supposed to think about that? I don't even know how I feel, well I guess I know better than anyone else how I feel, but trying to make sense of all my thoughts and, and emotions is like trying to regulate border control!"

Lois nodded, trying for understanding and compassionate but settling for secondhand fascination. "What did you say?"

Chloe threw her hands up and shrugged. "You know, the usual, not ready, blah, blah, the whole spiel. You think that I'd be more original, being a reporter and all, but I still go to the old standbys. But...I don't know, I mean I always figured he'd be a sort of...I don't know, he put across the vibe that he wasn't interested in that level of commitment and it really threw me for a loop." Chloe admitted.

Lois nodded, taking on her new role as therapist deftly. "Well, as much as I hate to admit it, it's obvious that you're crazy about him and, well, did you ever consider that maybe it's _you_ with the committing issues?"

Chloe nodded, uncertain but honest. "I guess, but I never really saw that in myself...before now, I mean."

"Well, you've never had much of an opportunity to showcase any sort of commitment-phobia and let's be honest, you seem to be a text-book case." Chloe quirked an eyebrow but didn't interrupt. "I mean, c'mon, you pined for a guy throughout high school and into college, a guy so ridiculously unattainable and oddly mysterious that it was as good as chasing some sort of fairy tale prince! There wasn't much danger of him ever deciding to toss his eternal quest for Lana out the window, so latching on to him was a safe idea, right? I mean, I know none of this is conscious, but now you've got someone who, well, _sees_ you as much as you see him. It's an adjustment." She qualified, studying her cousin's face as she jumped, jarred by the vibrating of Chloe's cell phone.

"Hey, you're buzzing. You're in high demand today. Is it...Lex?" She guessed, her mouth puckering as though the name tasted unpleasant in her mouth.

Chloe checked her phone and frowned. "No, it's Clark, do you mind if I take this?" She asked, barely waiting for Lois's say so before propping the box up on her hip and skipping down the hallway toward solitude.

"Hello?" She greeted conventionally, surprised by the chaos in the background.

"CHLOE! CHLOE!" Chloe jumped, pulling the phone from her ear.

"Good god, Clark, what's wrong? Where are you?" She asked, still handling her phone from a safe distance.

Clark labored breathing intensified on the other line. "I've been...I've got, someone attacked me outside the farm. I need your help. They hit me with something, like an dart but I can't find it."

Chloe began pacing, a nervous habit she was never really able to kick. "Why don't you go up, up, and away?" She said, dropping the box with reckless abandon and sprinting down the stairway.

"I don't...know what they did to me, but _nothing's working_." He said, confused and panicked.

Chloe ran through the front door, waving her arms desperately to catch the attention of a cab driver. "Where are you? What...where are you?"

"I'm in the barn. I have to hide...I never have to hide. I can't even...I can't move the tractor." Chloe yanked a cab door open, shouted the address and attended to the phone.

"Have you called the police?" He groaned and answered in the negative. "Why didn't...fine, I'll call."

"No, no...I don't know what they're doing...they have to know something about me. I can't..."

"Oh, so you can bring me into this but the police are just not qualified to handle some freak seekers." She sniped.

"Chlo, I...I'm really...I've never felt so...I need help. I don't know where they are, my powers aren't working." He whispered.

Chloe stared into her purse bleakly, gripping the small canister of mace that was longsince buried and forgotten. "I'll be right there, just stay hidden." She said before ordering the cabbie to floor it, but there was no response. The line was dead, Clark was gone.

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The smart ass at the front desk was more than reluctant to let Clark go. Even after he received authorization, officer Ellis continued to grill Chloe on the circumstances. "Do you know what Mr. Kent was arrested for?" He asked with extreme condescension.

Chloe rolled her eyes without abandon. "Yeah, reckless endangerment and assault of several federal officers. I know it, you know it, I'm sure Clark knows it, now the charges were dropped so if I were you I'd just get him out of the holding cell and bring him out. You have no right to hold him, and I'd appreciate it if you upheld our judicial system instead of attempting to enforce your own rules." She snapped, tapping her foot impatiently and ignoring his angry and reluctant mutterings.

When Clark shuffled out of his holding cell he looked positively awful, as though he had been held for days opposed to hours. He caught her eye and then turned away, embarrassed."Is he free to go?" Chloe asked the glorified secretary, ignoring Clark's presence entirely. When officer Ellis nodded sourly, she turned toward the door.

Clark chased after her, reaching for her sleeve. "Chlo, hey, wait up!" He exclaimed, surprised when she brushed him off. "I'm sorry, I'll pay you back for the bail. Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, fighting to match her stride.

Chloe whirled around, her brows knit in frustration and her eyes two chips of ice. "Bail? No, I just had to sell my soul to get you out of here. God, Clark! You have no idea what you did. You beat up the FBI or whatever acronym they are...you, you have absolutely..." She trailed off, turning back on her path.

Clark reached for her shoulder. "What...what are you talking about? What's going on? Is...are you okay?" He asked with completely unreserved concern that it succeeded in interrupting her righteous anger.

Chloe stopped dead in her tracks and turned to him, the coldness replaced by something foreign. "I...uh, had to go to Lex to get you out of this. Don't look at me like that. You attacked _three _federal officers and apparently you started a new type of bowling using an FBI agent as a ball and my neighbor as the pin...and, I mean, this whole thing just reeked of Lex. So I went to go beg him, or bribe him, whichever worked, and it turns out neither of them did because while he enjoyed the begging, the money did nothing for him." She blurted, blotting the inevitable tears welling in her eyes.

Clark approached her, hesitant and uncertain, wrapping his hand around her shoulder awkwardly. "So know...he owns me, or as good as, whatever. I've got to write some bullshit article praising him and all of his 'glory', plus I get the added bonus of forking over that frustratingly unhelpful scrap of paper."

Clark frowned but seemed determined to cheer her up. "Well, we weren't getting very far with it anyway and by now I'm sure you've got the sequence memorized..."

She sighed and laughed sarcastically. "Ha, and I didn't even get to get you the best part yet! I'm also being forced to take an unknown job for the incredibly corrupt LuthorCorp where I'll be working directly underneath Lex, no puns, please." She insisted.

Chloe considered that for a beat before revising, "Well, okay, I'll allow you one pun but that's it. And if it's a good one maybe it'll be a buy pun get pun free sort of deal..." Clark interrupted firmly, pressing a finger to her lips to ebb the mounting panic.

"How can he make you take a job? No, no way, he can't do that. He can do anything and everything in the free world except mess with you, and that's not about to change just because I did something...so obviously stupid. I'll go talk to him, or turn him upside down and shake him until he changes his mind. It's not your responsibility to clean up after me, Chlo, I can handle this." He insisted, ignoring the tell-tale eye roll.

"Really, you can handle this? You were halfway to a federal prison before I skipped work to beg the President of the US to let you go and now I'm his singing and dancing monkey. And Clark, as you are well aware, I neither sing nor dance!" She said with an edge of hysteria, brandishing her car keys like weaponry.

Clark fought a creeping smile valiantly and reached for her wrist. "Step away from the keys, Chlo. Come on, we've fought against much worse things than this, and have got through all that before. I don't see why you don't think that we can do this too."

He didn't realize how he was grouping them together, but the truth was that it had been just them for a long time. Men and women came and went through their lives as meaningless and disposable as Kleenex. It had been years since either had had a lasting relationship, Clark hadn't even exerted an effort after Lana. They were together, for better or worse, and in a way they always had been but as the years went on, they progressively moved closer together.

Slowly but surely, their sphere contracted until they were the only ones in it. Of course Chloe had Lois, but she and Clark shared a sort of solidarity that neither shared with anyone else. Chloe hadn't seen someone in a marginally romantic capacity in months, and apart from the occasional liaison Clark was very much alone since the Lana disaster. Clark's hand lingered on hers, and this time she didn't pull away.

She tried to stop thinking, stop worrying about what the future would bring and if it was wise to progress into something so scary and even unknown.

"Clark...I know this is an awful time to be thinking about...or talking about this, but what is going on here?" She asked, glancing down at their interlocked hands. He instinctively moved to pull away but made the conscious effort to remain as he was. She saw something shift in his features, his eyes hardening with determination and his mouth drawing into a line.

"I...Chlo, you...you know what you mean to me and, well, I think you know...you've got to know, that you're all there is for me." He stuttered, proving once again that articulation was not one of his many super abilities.

It was her turn to back away, but this time Clark stood firm, grasping her hands nearly to the point of pain. "How long?" She asked, and Clark started to think that her eyebrows would be permanently knit together, and he didn't care.

"I...a long time. Since Lex...before Lex, during Lex, after Lex. I didn't want to...it never seemed right, now it doesn't seem right but I'm starting to think that it would never feel right. But you have to know and I have to have you know."

Chloe raised her arms, breaking free from his hand in confusion. "All that time and you didn't say anything? I thought maybe...I was just projecting, I mean I've always, you know how I felt all throughout adolescence and up past high school. Why didn't you say anything? I mean, stuff like that doesn't just go away and...ugh. This is weird," she muttered, turning into the parking lot, and as soon as she blinked Clark was yards ahead of her, facing her as he would an enemy.

"No, no, I just...we need to talk about this, or say something. I've been walking on eggshells, not wanting to scare you off and I've been scared too, I'm not denying that. But...I really think that this could be it, for you, for me, and I don't want anybody else. What about you? Do you...wait, I don't think I want to know. Never mind, yes, I do." He said confrontationally, not sure what emotions he should be channeling, completely unsure of how to prioritize this flood of feelings.

She averted his eyes briefly before reaching her point of resolve. "No, there's no one else. But this is just...I have no idea what's going on with my life. This is just...awful timing." She stated lamely, shrugging. "And you...you know that you have a much greater calling than just being someone's boyfriend. You're going to do such amazing things, and I don't think being with me would be conducive to..." And once again she didn't see it coming. At one moment Chloe was making excuses and attempting to play the martyr and the next Clark appeared directly in front of her.

He leaned down, hesitant but not in a high-school esque manner, not fearing bad breath or rejection...well, maybe rejection a _little_, but instead knowing that this was 'it'. There would be no pretending, no stalemate. Clark had already decided that he wasn't going to give up, he wasn't going to just sit and wait for Chloe to make up her mind or for things to calm down. There's was a waiting game, she longed for him and he longed for her for around a decade, and enough was enough. He had waited long enough, and when they crossed that line he would not willingly back step over it.

Clark took her in his arms, sweeping her off the pavement, pressing his lips to hers gently but urgently. Her left heel clattered to the ground, followed in quick succession by her car keys. She slinked her arms around his neck uncertainly before grasping his hair and kissing him back desperately. She was tired, tired of feeling isolated, tired of not being able to find anyone to form any sort of reasonable connection with, tired of pretending that she didn't want this...that she hadn't wanted it for years.

She could have considered the repercussions, of what this would mean to their friendship, how and if they could successfully transition from best friends to something infinitely more dear. But she didn't think, Chloe found that her mind was strangely absent at the moment.

His face was unshaven, his hair unwashed and his clothes slept in and rumpled but at that moment, or any moments in which she would reflect upon this, she did not care.

**Thank you so much to the people who answered my question last chapter, I think I'm going the longer route and I hope that most people approve of that course of action**


	22. in Love and War

**Thank you so much for all of your reviews and support, I am really interested in hearing about what you guys think about the direction of the story so please comment! WARNING: Spoilers for Hannibal, the book and movie.**

**FLASHBACK**

Clark wasn't answering her text messages. Not a good sign. Chloe's mind raced and went to the awful and familiar places that it always traveled when Clark was in some sort of danger. It wasn't atypical for him to meet and defeat foes on a weekly basis, but he rarely involved her in his struggles anymore as he was growing progressively more independent and increasingly more capable. Years ago she would have raced to his rescue without batting an eye, but months of only watching from the sidelines rendered her rusty and nervous.

"This is close enough, thanks." She muttered as the cab began to drive up the winding road leading to the Kent farm. She tossed a wad of cash at him before jumping out, hitting the ground running. The police were curiously absent, and the drive was empty and deathly quiet.

Like a child playing hide-and-go-seek she ducked and concealed herself behind various objects, certain that she was looking comical all the while and was glad that there was no one to observe her. Her instincts were adversarial, she wanted to call the police, call Lex, call the FBI and obey Clark's desires simultaneously. The fact that there seemed to be no one at the Kent farm made her more geared toward the latter.

They were gone; of this much she was sure. Whoever had intruded was intruding no longer, and she felt her gut unclench with relief mingled with confusion. Why do this just to leave? They must've had kryptonite, nothing else was quite so debilitating. She forbade herself from wondering if it was a lethal dose, but the thought persisted stubbornly all the while.

"Clark…CLARK! It's me! Where are you?" She shouted stupidly, throwing caution to the wind as she stepped out into the open. She sprinted toward the barn, feeling the laborious effects of panic consuming her. Dead silence filled the space and Chloe felt faint, like a prim southern belle exposed to the elements for too long.

It was ghostly and she found herself incapable of focus as her heart pounded in her ears. "CLARK!" She screamed, desperate, but to no avail. The quiet was overwhelming.

She pushed her way through the barn doors, adrenaline making it possible to plow through without pause. Guided by instinct rather than any basis in fact, Chloe raced up the rickety steps into his loft, the telescope still aimed optimistically skyward, but the 'astronomer' was nowhere to be seen.

She was in the throes of a full blown crying jag before she even realized that the tears were falling, fat and unstoppable as she stumbled around in vain. An unfamiliar chest loomed nearby, concealed by shadows and nondescript in appearance. Fumbling, Chloe unlatched the trunk, hope, worry and confusion battled it out inside of her until hope succeeded beyond the rest.

Clark's pale and clearly unconscious face peered out at an odd angle, his body curled into the fetal position and muscular arms tucked under his body. Chloe slapped his face lightly, attempting to stir him without any avail as her hysterical tears turned to tears of joy. "Get up, wake up. I'm right here…" She whispered, suddenly cautious of her surroundings.

When all attempts to scoop him out proved useless she simply tipped the chest, his lifeless body spilling out onto his hardwood floor. Clark merely crumbled, no sound of pain or annoyance escaping his lips. Chloe investigated his condition, relief tripling when she found that his pulse was strong and his breathing heavy, but she couldn't see the source of any injury. Cautiously she extended his arms and removed his T-shirt, straddling his waist in order to get leverage. This, at least, stirred him slightly.

She gasped audibly, pressing her fingers to the glowing welts plastered on his chest. _One_ dart? There were four at least, and those were just the visible wounds. One of the darts still stood erect on his ribcage, initially appearing so small and unthreatening. Chloe pulled and pocketed it before seeing that her hasty actions merely worsened his condition.

Clark jolted and the small prick mark began to expand, the ugly green color visibly traveling his veins. She leaned forward hesitantly, battling her instincts versus logic before pressing her lips to his ribcage and covering the infected site with her mouth, sucking the poison out of his system and into her mouth.

Clark shook violently, growing increasingly more difficult to contain as his strength slowly returned. She pressed down on his shoulders roughly to stop the convulsions as she removed the kryptonite, spitting out the vile venom periodically. It was evident that the darts were intended to wound and not kill, only so the interested party could detain him before capture.

She felt lightheaded, uncertain whether it was an effect from the kryptonite or merely her mind playing tricks on her. She was flying jaggedly like a bird with a wounded wing, odd flashes of sheer and inexplicable pleasure and near unconsiousless nearly overpowering her. It was how she imagined an acid trip would feel like before quickly deteriorating from the euphoria to very intense flickering blackouts.

Chloe attempted to keep calm, resolved to remove as much kryptonite from his system as she could before he was fully awake or she passed out. As logic fought it's way through her scattered mind she couldn't help but consider what the potential side effects of ingesting kryptonite would be, resolving to hope that whoever crafted these darts had done so intending to protect against any such 'accidents'.

Clark roared inhumanly, body jolting and breathing intensifying. He broke free from Chloe's comparatively weak grip and seized her shoulders, using his weight to roll her onto her back and switch positions. She gasped, vision waning as she quickly spat out the remaining poison.

There was no Clark in his eyes, only the fearsome and loathsome monster that he always feared lay dormant inside him. "Clark, it's Chloe." She said, fear enveloping her as his expression turned murderous. "I'm trying to…get the hell off of me!" She demanded, attempting to head butt him. He growled violently as her forehead struck his and he misinterpreted, leaning down and pressing his lips to hers fiercely.

_Lex, god, Lex. Not Clark...not Clark, this isn't...oh, Lex_. That jolted her at least, picturing Lex's face if he were to witness this display. Superpowers or not, she highly doubted that Clark could defend himself against Lex were that the case.

He gripped her hands so roughly that she lost all feeling, relentless and rough to the point of cruelty. She valianty battled her body's reaction, turning her head slightly but that only succeeded in pissing him off. She was seeing stars and she couldn't tell if they were the good ones or not, but regardless she kneed him and struggled impatiently. He slumped over, his significant weight bearing down on her as his adrenaline faded and the kryptonite regained its hold.

After minutes of fighting she managed to free all of her limbs and when Clark opened his eyes next he was miraculously laying on his battered couch with Chloe sitting beside him. "Why...what happened?" He croaked, wincing at the drastic change in temperature as she pressed her hand to his forehead, checking to see if he was still feverish.

"Are you okay?" She asked, clearly concerned. When he sat up alertly she answered his question. "You were riddled with those stupid kryptonite darts, and by the way what the hell is with all of this kryptonite floating around Smallville? Is there a factory or something that manufactures this, I mean come on it seems like whenever you're attacked the bad guy is equipped with the _one _thing you're vulnerable to." She said, successfully dodging that minefield. She pushed a glass of water at him along with a two ibuprofens. She didn't know whether or not it would be effective, but she figured it couldn't hurt.

"Did you run into them? How long have I been out?" He asked, drinking the water on Chloe's urging.

"No and about three and a half hours, give or take, at least since when I found you. You seem to be getting back to normal, you were very feverish for a while but I think it's worked it's way out of your system with your freakishly good metabolism and antibodies. How are you feeling?" She asked, instinctively rubbing her tender wrists.

Clark frowned. "I'm fine and what's wrong?"

She cringed, feeling oddly guilty. "It's nothing, you were...you were feverish." She reiterated but from the expression on his face she knew that wasn't going to cut it. "Well, I was trying to get some of that crap out of you and...well, you kinda went a little bit postal." In the blink of an eye Clark had vacated the couch and was crouched right beside her and grasped her hands gently, investigating the burgeoning bruises with a critical eye.

"Oh god, Chlo. I am..." She was horrified to realize that he was on the verge of tears.

She shook her head emphatically and pulled her hands away. "It's fine, I just...should've been more careful. There was nothing you could have done, you were reacting to the kryptonite and it's perfectly okay. I'll be fine. Just get back on that damned couch and lie down." She assured him, forcing his backward and tucking him in. As he settled down she cast a glance down to her watch and tried to conceal a grimace.

Clark wasn't fooled. "Are you sure you're all right?"

She shrugged before nodding. "Yeah, I'm good. I just, well I was supposed to meet up with Lex, but it's fine I'll just call him." She said with dismissive reluctance. "I'm worried about how you're going to heal, and I don't want you to strain anything but...what are you doing?" She asked as Clark rose to his feet and headed for the stairs, casting his blanket aside and going into super speed.

He raced for the tractor and lifted it up with one arm without so much as the blink of an eye. "I'm completely fine, you should go." She shook her head but Clark felt a sharp pain when he realized what an easy battle this would be. Clark remembered the days when she was able to drop everything to come to his aid, and he had never fully appreciated how vital she was until he realize that their time together was precious and limited.

"No, go ahead. This happens what, once a week? It's no reason to rearrange your social calendar. Whoever these guys are they're not coming back tonight and I've got plenty of time to figure out who sent these goons." He insisted, hoping that he couldn't see through his feeble attempt at appearing supportive.

"Are you sure?" She asked, going to hug him as he nodded. "Okay, go into Metropolis and stay at my place, I don't want you to stay here until we figure out exactly what's going on and who's after you. You should have some clothes in my apartment, and it seems like the kryptonite's worked its way out of your system. I have a sample of the dart right here," she said, patting her purse.

"Need a ride?" He asked, extending his arms jokingly and surprised when she stepped forward, grinning sheepishly.

"I am really late." She hedged, reaching for his elbow and guiding him outside the barn. He wrapped his arms around her as she stepped onto the tops of his feet before Clark catapulting through the air. Chloe pressed her cheek to his shoulder and his arms tightened protectively around her as they escalated.

"It's been a long time!" She shouted over the whistling sound of the whipping air. He nodded, propeling them toward Metropolis.

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She was a sight to be seen, for sure. Chloe stumbled through the doors of the French bistro in a state of disarray, frazzled and clearly off her game. Her hair was windswept and her hearing had yet to fully recover from the rushing sound of the wind. She hadn't bothered to so much as glance in a mirror since she had fled the Kent residence and it showed, but at least she had remembered to throw a jacket on, effectively covering the growing bruises on her arms.

"You're late." Chloe jumped, startled by the sound of Lex's voice.

"You got my message, right?" She asked with stilted concern as he rose to his feet and pulled a chair out for her, touching her arm and guiding her.

He smiled, but his amusement was clearly limited. "Yes, my secretary reached me just as I was leaving. But that's hardly the point, what's the matter? Are you alright? Did something happen? You're so...I've never seen you like this." She shook her head weakly but when it was clear that he wasn't fooled, she merely shrugged.

"It's just been a…weird day, I guess you could say. Not wall-of-weird worthy but it's climbing the ranks. Oh, you ordered already?" She wondered at her own surprise as a waiter swooped by, it was to be expected, of course. He left her to her own devices as she devoured what he had ordered for her, much better than anything she would have had the knowledge to pick herself.

"What have you been up to today?" He asked, attempting to sound disinterested and unconcerned as she popped another mouthful of the mouthwatering cuisine down her gullet. It was certainly an innocent question, but she felt the coils of guilt tug at her nonetheless.

"Umm, well, I helped Lois move in." She said cheerfully, though 'help' was certainly an exaggerated term. More accurately she brought a box to her new apartment and scattered to the wind the moment Clark summoned her.

Lex smiled skeptically, the concern etched in his eyes. "That doesn't sound too strange to me. What happened, why were you late?" It was a new tack that he was trying, instead of allowing his temper to flame up he picked at her story until the lies crumbled and the truth magically appeared.

She sighed, dropping her fork and the charade. "Clark called when I was at Lois's new place and, well, it seems like someone was trying to break into the farm. He was pretty freaked out and, well, I just went over to calm him down. You know how he can get." She decided that now was not the time to mention that he was shirtless and unconscious for the majority of the time, and she had no intention of informing her incredibly jealous boyfriend that in the throes of a feverish episode Clark also assaulted and kissed her. She missed the fraction of a moment when his mask flickered and an indiscernable emotion surfaced before he was able to recover.

Lex nodded, chewing slowly and effectively concealing his suspicion and surprise. "Keep eating, Chloe. You've got to keep your blood sugar up, have a drink. And _why _are you qualified to come to his rescue? Were the police otherwise engaged?" Chloe toyed with the idea of lying to him, but he wasn't the type to take an excuse at face value. He would find out regardlessly.

"He wasn't sure if anything was taken, so he didn't call. I guess he didn't want to…seem paranoid." It sounded flimsy even to her and if she hadn't been focused on her own acute embarrassment she would have seen the flash of alarm in his eyes.

Lex nodded with faux understanding, recovering from his surprise with such grace that Chloe never thought he had been misplaced. "Oh, okay. So he'd rather endanger your life than bruise his own fragile self-esteem by summoning people who are trained to deal with this sort of thing. Well, that makes perfect sense."

She knew that she should have come up with a better lie, but the truth was that she didn't want to lie to him anymore. She was beyond fearing his motivations and worrying about what he would say or think. Chloe wanted complete honesty and only refrained from doing so for Clark's benefit. It was not her secret to tell, and she was quickly growing weary with the pretenses.

"You know Clark, he can be a bit prone to overreaction. It's all fine, of course." She lied admirably, taking a long sip from her cosmopolitan.

Lex raised his arms, stiff and frustrated with the turn the conversation had taken. "You're right, this sums up Clark perfectly." He said with a hard laugh. "He's ego driven with a savior complex and can't stand to let an authority figure sort things out. He could have put you in danger but he never even considered that possibility." Lex ranted, plowing straight through despite Chloe's attempts to interrupt.

She finally had her opportunity. "This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you, I knew you'd react like this. And you're one to talk about ego, Lex, he's just...you know how he can be. But it's not my job to defend him and I just...we're friends and of course I'm willing to help him out when he needs it." Lex's frown deepened at the defensive nature of her tone, waving carelessly toward the waiter for another round of drinks.

"Yes, I know that. How could I forget it when you constantly throw it in my face?" He snapped, losing his restraint.

Chloe's eyes widened and she felt a wave of anger prickle through her and she knew it was fruitless to fight it. "How is it that you think that I'm parading my friendship with Clark around you? I've known him since...well, almost forever and I'm not going to pretend like he's not important to me to appease you, just so you won't go off on one of your jealous rants! You've slept with countless women, the majority of whom are _models_, so where do you get off dissecting every one of my relationships outside of you like you've never been in another relationship?" She asked fiercely.

Lex clenched his jaw, hand so tightly gripped on the table that he lost all sensation. "I've never denied my past, Chloe, and I won't pretend that I haven't made some blunders in the past but there is not...there was _never _the kind of thing you have with him. How do you think that makes me...I get to see him look at you day in and day out. I may have been somewhat of a playboy for a long time but you go to see him whenever he rings his little bell."

She rolled her eyes, lifting her glass and emptying it in one long gulp. "How many times do I have to tell you that there is nothing whatsoever between me and Clark!"_Apart from that very involuntary kiss..._she banished the thought from her mind in order to maintain her righteous flow of anger.

"I believe _you_ all right, but what about him? Did you see the way he looked after he walked in on us that morning? Like...like he just caught his girlfriend cheating on him." He insisted, staring down the nearby eavesdropping waiter until he scurried away.

"He's not...believe me, there was ample opportunity for that to occur if it ever was going to." Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say.

Lex's eyes expanded to such a degree that he resembled a cartoon character. "What?" He sputtered before controlling his volume. "You...what do you even mean by that? _Ample opportunity?_ You...you said that the two of you never..." He trailed off, accusatory.

"No, no, of course we didn't. We just, well, when we were younger...you know, it's really not important. This is delicious." She exclaimed, gesturing to her near empty plate.

Lex wasn't about to be diverted that easily. "I want to know exactly what it is you meant by that." He demanded.

She shook her head, pushing a caper across her plate distractedly. "Come on, neither one of us wants the other to give a laundry list of the people they were with in a marginally romantic campacity and it's completely irrelevant. It's been years since anything happened."

If Lex had a hairline, his eyebrows would ahve shot up into it. "Since _anything happened?_ How long were you...how frequently did you two get together in a 'marginally romantic capacity?'" He asked with a derisive edge to his tone.

"Why do you get like this? It's completely ridiculous, I'm with you and I'm...in love with you. So what if in a few near death situations Clark and I locked lips? My age still had a 'teen' at the end of it the last time it happened." She leaned over the table, taking his hand and squeezing it lightly. He froze for a moment before reciprocating.

"I just...don't understand why." He said, voice lilting as though it were a question.

She shook her head and shrugged halfheartedly. "I don't want to argue about this stupid stuff anymore. I feel like you pick these fights just so you can...get something off of your chest, you know, say something that you don't think you could say unless we're arguing. It's obvious you've been...curious, to say the least, about the nature of our friendship. Why can't you just ask, why do you have to get on the offense and act like he's the enemy. You can talk to me, okay, about anything. I want to be able to do that and you should know that." She said, wondering at the extent of this and what kind of questions he was likely to ask.

He clasped his free hand over hers, both arms stretched across the table. "Then why are you so evasive? What do you have to hide?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I'm not hiding anything, I know you think it's weird that I'm close to him, but suck it up. I deal with the things about you that annoy the hell out of me, you should try it some time." She replied caustically.

"Like what?" He asked, the ghost of a smile playing in the corners of his mouth.

She sighed and briefly disentangled their hands, throwing her arms in the air dramatically. "Well, let's see. You are intensely jealous, you call me at all hours of the day and night and if I don't pick up you are immediately suspicious, though you've admittedly improved since I told you to quit it. You are quite secretive about the nature of your politics, you leave the toilet seat up, you've had me followed by a sloppy private investigator and you prefer the film version of Hannibal to the book." He counted each of the negatives on his fingers, in the end having seven extended digits.

"Wow, that's quite a laundry list of misdeeds." He teased, taking a long sip from his brandy. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to discount the last complaint, you're putting words in my mouth." He said resolutely.

Chloe quirked an eyebrow comically and smiled. "Really? I seem to recall a conversation where you claimed that Hannibal the movie was superior to the novel."

He shook his head emphatically. "No, I said I preferred the _ending _to the movie, not the movie as a whole entity." He corrected but she was not buying it.

"No, we watched it together and you were very opinionated."

Lex shook his head once again. "Well, come on, the FBI agent extraordinaire Clarice Starling decides to quit her pursuit of justice in order to become the lover of a cannibalistic serial killer? That's ridiculous."

She scoffed at his description. "Hardly, she was completely isolated from all she knew and disillusioned with the entire governmental institution! The bigwigs were working to get her fired and the only person who ever came up to bat for her was, well, Hannibal Lecter. It was completely in character, and it was obvious that he was pining for her. I'm telling you, the movie butchered a shocking and disturbing ending in favor of something tame and conventional."

"Tame and conventional?" He asked, bemused. "Hardly, he cut his hand off instead of hers! He feeds a child _human_ brains! It was an improvement, not detrimental." He argued.

"You're not going to win this one, even with the murderous pigs, eel murders, and cannibalistic acts the most disturbing thing by far in the book was the fact that the heroine falls, she isn't some absolute pillar of moral strength, she's human and weak. But even in the end, she bests Hannibal when no one else was capable, and he can't just discount that. She's the cure, when all else has failed she is the one thing that brings accountability back to his life, he surrenders his quest to save his long dead sister and instead is capable of living in the present. How can you think that the emotional and moral complexities in the book can even compare to the shallowness of the movie?"

He just smiled and rubbed her arm gently, not noticing Chloe's slight wince as he applied pressure to the burgeoning bruises on her forearm and wrist. "You really should've been a politician, or maybe a lawyer, but I still disagree."

She shrugged. "I tried, at least. Maybe some day you'll wake up." She suggested, smiling at his genuine laugh.

"I wouldn't count on it."

**Tell me what you think! I really like this chapter but if anyone has suggestions or comments please REVIEW!**


	23. Rendezvous and Deja vu

**Not to brag, but I've got to tell you these last like four chapters have been my absolute favorites out of all that I've ever written! But still, this is my favorite to date. I spent a lot of time and effort and worked really hard on this, so I'd really appreciate some feedback!**

Chloe barricaded herself in her office and had no immediate plans to resurface. Symone was being uncharacteristically nice and supportive, seemingly retiring her pitch fork for a flag of victory. Lois was so murderous after hearing the 'news' that Chloe contemplated pushing her desk against the door in addition to using the dead bolt.

Symone barely allowed her to take her two-weeks notice before practically throwing herself at her and shrieking with delight at the prospect of a Presidential expose. She barely even registered the fact that her ace reporter would need to take a significantly dwarfed role in the newspaper, the prospective revenue from the interview was still flashing dollar signs in her eyes and making her dizzy with anticipation.

Chloe threw open her drawer and studied the contents, her little cheat sheet on layout and the do's and don'ts of article composition was still sitting in the same place as always. A few power bars were tossed haphazardly amongst her paperwork and an unopened pack of pencils sat new and shiny next to her desk.

She imagined bringing a big cardboard box in and cleaning everything out, she wondered how the office would look when it was clean and Chloe-less. Things she hadn't looked at in years would resurface, and someone else would take her place like clockwork.

The world wasn't going to stop for her, the news wasn't going to quit happening and reporters weren't going to stop haranguing. Life would go on, just without her. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Clark had magically appeared behind Chloe and spoke before announcing his presence a billion and three times over the course of their friendship and she still jumped perceptibly at the sound of his voice.

"I don't really have a choice in the matter." She said wearily, turning to face him. It was strange, looking at him with new eyes, eyes she had retrained over the years. He looked very much the same, leaning against the closed window casually, but there was a discernible increase in eagerness alight in his smile. They weren't sure how to behave around each other, how they would work out this modern day science fiction twist of "When Harry Met Sally…"

"I already took my notice, and how did you get in here?" She asked with genuine curiosity, racking her brain for any imperceptible sound of a window _clicking _shut or the door creaking open but she came up empty.

He frowned, taking a step forward. "The window, the door's locked and Lois is pacing outside. Why did you quit?"

She shrugged, trying for nonchalance but settling for nervous anticipation. She wasn't sure why she even bothered trying anymore, he could see straight through her like she was a sheet of plastic and he never even bothered chiding her for evading the truth. Whether or not she lied, he still understood her feelings. While her motives and reasoning sometimes escaped him, his empathy allowed some degree of awareness.

"It was the only thing I could do, I'm still going to work part time and all but…I doubt I'll have enough free time, what with attempting to prevent that collapse of the free world." Clark listened, still as a statue.

"There's only so much you can do." He said simply, eager to change the somber topic. "I can't believe this is actually happening. You leaving The Planet? I never would've thought that would have happened." There was no curiosity in his voice, only flat sadness.

"Neither can I, I still can't believe it. I'll have my desk empty and my things packed and I'll be parked in a cubicle at LuthorCorp it still won't have hit me." She admitted, restless and anxious. Any minute now Lex was going to walk through that door, bodyguards undoubtedly stationed at every entrance and exit. Why did the thought of him still do this to her?

"I'm really going to miss…everything, I mean, the work and the interviewing, and seeing Lois on a daily basis when she's not trying to kill me." She paused, her tone lilting and hesitant, so very unlike her.

She was notorious for being calm and collected though undeniably passionate when interviewing and being interviewed, but there was something about Clark that always put her off guard and made her vulnerable. After years of acting as his best friend and sole confidante she was able to overcome it, but her triumph never eliminated her soft-spot for the boy in red and blue.

Chloe looked at him and felt a blush creep up her cheeks and it was as though she had just time traveled back to high school. She shifted uncomfortably, crossing and then uncrossing her arms indecisively before finishing her statement. "And I'm definitely going to miss, well, you."

It was as simple as it was true. A mere month before she would have been able to say that without hesitation or fear, she wouldn't need to read into the figurative tea leaves to understand its meaning. Things were so different, but Clark still mattered more than almost anything else.

Chloe took a step toward him, tentative. It had been nearly a week since their parking lot rendezvous and neither had so much as tried to touch the other. They were rigid and formal, like preteens who just agreed to go steady, uncertain of exactly what the connotations were.

Clark was, per usual, waiting for some signal of reciprocation and she was too confused to comprehend what it was that she felt. She knew that she loved him and was certain that there was an attraction that both had successfully ignored for so long, but she wasn't sure of the depth of either.

She took his hand and leaned against his chest, stiff and uncertain. It was so new, so strange, they had been such comfortable and easy friends for so long that this closeness wasn't unusual, but the meaning was very different. She couldn't shake the feeling that this was forbidden territory, that neither of them were allowed to do this and the sense of wrongness was overwhelming…or at least it was until he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her tight to him.

"I'll always be here," he promised, lips skimming the top of her forehead.

Chloe smiled, feeling the heat from his body warm her own. "I don't need you to save me, I just want the option." She teased, feeling the tight coil of worry loosen and dissolve as he held her. She was not the type of person to feel whole through another person, but she couldn't deny the contentment the emanated from her when she was with Clark.

"You'll always have the option, though I think I'll need it more than you will." He joked, swaying her slightly. The phone rang in the distance, but neither made a move to pick it up, enveloped in their own bubble of happiness that Clark had never experienced before…and Chloe had only felt once before.

For Clark there were no strings, no ifs ands or buts, and no fear. It was the most natural thing in the world and now that he felt it, he didn't plan on letting go. Hindsight's twenty-twenty and the idea that he had forsaken this intimacy for years of intermittent pining and melancholy with Lana was an embarrassing showcase of his decision making abilities. Despite their tenure as friends, it was an easy transition for him. It had been a long time since he had been able to imagine waking up with anyone else or spending the rest of his life without her.

"Do you ever want to…?" She began, trailing off uncertainly. This certainly piqued his interest.

"Want to what?" He asked, gripping her shoulders and pushing himself away in order to scrutinize her facial expressions.

She smiled brokenly and shook her head, pressing her face to his collarbone and sighing. "It's childish and stupid." She said, but the skeptical silence induced her to continue. "Don't you ever just want to leave?" She asked. "I mean, it's cowardly and so ridiculous but I just…it's hard to fight anymore...to even want to fight anymore."

Clark shifted slightly and cleared his throat. "Where would we go?" There was that elusive 'we' again.

She shrugged, uncertain. "I don't know…it's just an errant thought. Forget about it." She said with hollow conviction.

"You know better than I do that you can't just outrun your problems, especially if that problem centers around Lex. You're the strongest person I know, Chlo, and if anyone can get past this it's you." His animated certainty made her smile.

There wasn't the same passion or fire that she had with Lex, not even the most artful self-deception could convince her otherwise. It wasn't groundbreaking or earth shattering, but all characteristic skepticism aside she knew that it was what she wanted and, even more persuasive, exactly what she needed.

She had spent years imagining what it would be like if Clark ever saw her in a different light and now that it was here it was so unexpected. It seemed natural, even logical that they progress and all she could think now was _what took so long?_ But it was a rhetoric question, to be sure. She knew exactly what it was that held her back and though she never consciously acknowledged it, she knew it to be the truth. Lex was a ghost of her past that was not quite dead and try as she may she couldn't forget.

Her phone buzzed and once she picked it up Chloe could feel the palpable eagerness from the other line and she instantly realized that it was Symone. "President Luthor is on his way up." She said, her trademark sourness completely absent from her address.

She sighed and hung up. "Speaking of the devil, Mr. President should be waltzing through that door any moment." She informed him.

She found herself falling into the old trap, imagining how Lex would have reacted…or _used_ to react when she reluctantly told him that Clark was summoning her. She could still picture the narrowing of his eyes, the tightness of his lips and the general expression of intense scrutiny and inescapable jealousy.

Clack merely nodded, looking slightly crestfallen but genuinely understanding. "All right, I should get going anyway. I hear there's an outbreak of civil war going on in Azerbaijan."

Chloe smiled, squeezing his hand and nodding. "You've been neglecting your duties as world police for little old me?" She asked, laughing at his blush. He leant down and pressed his lips to hers simply and sent her flying.

"I'll see you soon," he promised before hightailing into super speed and once again out her window. She wondered how many more times he would flee from her office and whether he would even be allowed to or want to visit her at her new 'job'.

Chloe felt trapped and uncomfortable, the déjà vu washing over her as she tensely awaited his arrival. She gracelessly offered to go interview him, but he preferred the bringing the mountain to Muhammad approach, perhaps hoping that if she was in her element she would be slightly less hostile. He was wrong.

A confident knock reverberated throughout the small office and Chloe fought the impulse to ignore him, triumphing as she unlocked the door. "Hello, Ms. Sullivan." He sounded too playful, too familiar for her taste. She gestured to the vacant chair, noting his growing look of amusement as he too noted the decided alteration in the manner of their meeting.

"How does freedom feel, is Clark appreciating your gracious gift?" He asked, lounging back in the chair and kicking his feet up on her desk. She frowned at his rudeness, but made no comment.

"Let's get to the questions, shall we? Or do you have a transcribed account of how the interview should go that you just want me to hand in?" She asked with faux contemplation.

He smiled, not taking the bait. "I am at your disposal." They both knew that this wasn't the case.

"Do you mind if I tape record or do you already have a typed transcript ready?" She asked with faux uncertainty.

Lex didn't take the bait and smiled. "On the contrary, only you have the necessary skills to enumerate the key points. Do you have a set of pre written questions, or are you going off the cuff?" She crossed and uncrossed her legs, reaching for the tape recorder. "On second thought…I'd prefer to keep this off tape. It's much friendlier that way, don't you agree?"

She could have slapped him right there, but instead settled for reading off a question in a purposefully monotone voice. "Out of all your accomplishments in office, which one do you consider to be the greatest?"

He raised his eyebrow, mimicking her trademark expression before sighing. "You know what? You're right; I think it's a good idea for me to send you some quotes if you'll just give me the questions. I'm sure you're capable of composing an article using that information." He stated decidedly. Chloe controlled her facial expression, not wishing to have him read more into her disappointment than necessary.

"Fine, this has been a splendid waste of time. I'm sure you can find your way out and just have your secretary e-mail me my lines."

Lex leant back, hands propped up behind his head leisurely. "No, I think I'm good here. We have some things to discuss, but they don't need to be immortalized in print." He said breezily.

Chloe frowned, casting her recorder aside. "Well, I've got things to do and I don't want to waste time making meaningless small talk, especially since you haven't even returned my laptop yet. How long does it take to copy my hard drive?"

He ignored her question completely. "Well, it's really not up to you. You're not going to be working here much longer, I'm sure there are plenty of borderline incompetents who would be more than willing to take over your workload. You are entertaining the Commander in Chief, after all." The urge to slap him rose again and Chloe was having a difficult time ignoring it.

"I love my job as much as you love making my life a living hell, so I would greatly appreciate it if you were to retract your claim on my career." It was as close to begging as she was willing to go.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll enjoy your position at LuthorCorp. It's certainly not entry level, and I've taken a look at your paltry salary and I'm absolutely shocked that you've been able to live off of this."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Well, seeing as you're the one who technically gives me my paycheck you're going to have to have a long, hard talk with yourself and then you can have fun doing other things to yourself, too. And not everyone has such expensive tastes as you do."

He smiled, readjusting himself and finally placing his feet on the ground. "Well, I've grilled and threatened myself for hours and I've come to the conclusion that the newspaper can't justify a greater salary, but you're other services are greatly desired…at LuthorCorp, of course." The double entendre made her teeth clench.

"I like what I do."

"And you can continue to do it! It could be a sort of hobby, I'm sure you can find the time to compose an article here and there, and from the look on your editor's face when I walked through that door, I'm sure she'd be more than willing to be flexible."

She wasn't buying it. "What exactly is it that you want me to do, other than risk my journalistic integrity so you can get an ego boost?" She asked derisively.

"Believe me; the job definitely plays to your strengths. I can't imagine anyone being better qualified." He complimented, though it was clear she wasn't flattered. That was the beauty and frustration of Chloe Sullivan, try as he may he could not make her out. He loved her and to a certain extent he even trusted her. But understanding her was a completely different story.

She cut straight to the point, not wishing to waste the time or effort on mincing words. "I don't want to play 'let's be cryptic,' just tell me already."

He smiled, concealing his frustration with ease. She caught him off guard, as she so frequently did. "I don't mean to be evasive."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Yes, you do."

Lex's lips flattened into a straight line. "You're responsibilities are as simple as they are practical. You are to be equipped with state of the art devices centered on background checks and the sort for either clientele of LuthorCorp or other people of interest. It will be completely routine procedure, but as the company has frequently found oftentimes the people designated to the task cut corners and are relatively inefficient, and I don't see that as being a potential pitfall for you."

Chloe frowned, leaning back in her chair slowly. "That's all?"

He lifted his hands, extending them in an evident peacemaking gesture. "That's all. Well, all this talk of work is tedious, I'm more interested in how Clark intends on repaying his massive debt to you. Did he offer to throw himself under the train to save you from the _awful _task of working for an 'evil' empire he's been fighting since puberty?" He asked, the mocking edge to his voice soft and subtle. She wondered how long it would remain as such. He was bitter and he was jealous, and he was not the type to sit on these emotions.

"Yes," she admitted freely.

He smiled. "Not that the gesture means much, coming from Mr. Invincible." He said in an obvious attempt to bait her. It didn't work.

"He offered to threaten you, shake you upside down, and bribe you." He bristled for a moment before composing himself. He hadn't expected honesty, but was more than willing to go with it.

"Ah, the consummate protector. What is he going to do when he doesn't have you anymore?" He asked, and he intended it to be rhetoric.

She hadn't taken it as such. "He's never 'not going to have' me. You can change my job, not my life." Chloe said with such ease that he almost bought her calm.

"Okay, I'll rephrase. What are _you _going to do when you don't have Clark anymore? What is your life going to be like when you don't have that symbiotic save and be saved relationship? You know as well as I do that Clark isn't going to stay at the Daily Planet for the rest of his unnatural life. It's only a matter of time before…"

"Before what? You can't possibly still…" She snapped, unable to contain her unadulterated rage.

"That's not what I'm saying, as you must realize. He's not normal. He won't be content living out his existence as an average Joe and if he continues to dispense his version of vigilante justice, how long do you think it will be before he finds himself permanently immobilized?" He asked, skating around the actual words in an attempt to appease Chloe.

He failed miserably. "I don't pretend to know the future but what Clark does…he does it for everyone else. He is the most genuine and selfless person I know and he wants to protect the innocent from exploitation. He's been doing this for years and I have the utmost faith in him." She wondered at the wisdom of her honesty, whether it would benefit her or crash and burn before her eyes.

He leaned forward eagerly, mouth agape and mind racing. "That may be so, but do you honestly think that Clark Kent can protect humanity?" His voice resonated with a strong and derisive edge.

She shook her head, brows knit together in frustration. "Does it matter? He's trying, and he's exactly what the people need right now in these times. He's a beacon of hope when people are so discouraged, and it's not my place to challenge his claim on humanity. I've never gone expressly against his wishes concerning his identity, and I never will, but now that people know there is someone out there fighting for them…it changes things."

Lex came to his feet, blood pumping hot through his veins. "You're still drinking the Kool-Aid on Kent! He's not some…some self-sacrificing martyr, he's not even human! He…you just, he can't do any wrong in your eyes, can he? For someone so intelligent you can be so completely obtuse, he is an alien…" She rose as well, pushing her swivel chair aside heatedly.

"So what if he is? How does that change what he his, who he is, what he does? While you parade around the country with all of your money and power, seeking self-gratification and a pat on your back that daddy never gave you he lives in obscurity and helps people just for the sake of helping them! He has no agenda, no ends to justify his means." She snarled, one hand pressed to her desk while she leaned toward him menacingly.

"He has a hero complex and what does he need an agenda for when he has you? How can he possibly go wrong when you are there in the sidelines, cheering him on and forgiving…no, disregarding his faults? I may have the United States, LuthorCorp and quite frankly I have every and anything I could ever want but I don't have you!"

She rolled her eyes and threw her hands up furiously. "Let's keep rehashing the past, why don't we? I'm just a…a prize to be won, you screwed up colossally and now it's your mission to recapture what's long lost. You have EVERYTHING! Why do you also feel the compulsive and persistent need to own me? Why force me into a job so you can keep an eye on me? Raid my apartment and try and break me by making me write a little love letter of a newspaper article for you?" He began pacing, cheeks flushed and pupils dilated.

"How is it that you _always _do that?" He asked, whirling around and gesturing at her defensively. "I come in, wanting to be calm and civil and…and even detached to a certain extent but you can always get me flared up, and no matter how hard you try to deny it I do the same to you. Look at you! You're a foot shorter than I am and you're standing there like some sort of Amazon, looking like you're about to rip me to shreds." He said, staring her down.

"You're not some trophy I want to win, Lana was a trophy, and she was my revenge on Clark and even to some extent my ego boost but not you! Never you." She crossed her arms, hostile and furious but listening all the same.

"I don't want you because I can't have you, that's just your ridiculous defense mechanism. I've had you and it was by far the best time of my entire life, there is no year or month or moment that I've loved or wanted to relive more than when we were together. If I could ever have that, even 1/100th of that again I think I could do anything, I could even live out my life alone if I could be with you again, even in the same room, even when you're yelling at me and talking about _Clark _with stars in your eyes. Can you even say that you love him the way you loved me? He doesn't fight you, he doesn't challenge you, he doesn't piss you off the way I do!" He exclaimed.

She edged around her desk and faced him straight on, forgetting the drastic difference in height and weights, staring him down like a weak opponent. "Ha, you say that like it's a bad thing! You're the most frustrating man I've ever known, why are you doing this? It's been, what, six years?" She asked, taking a deep breath before persisting.

"And you still act like a jealous baby every time Clark becomes a topic of discussion. I just don't get it, why do you care anymore? It's over, you can blackmail me, make me work for you but it won't happen. Still, coincidentally you've got your wish! Here I am, yelling at you, telling you that we will never be together in that capacity again!" She shouted, for a brief moment wondering if Lois was listening in before deciding that she didn't care.

He grabbed her by the shoulders, rough and passionate. "You're wrong. You can pretend that everything will be fine with Clark, that the two of you can live out some semblance of a normal existence together but I know the truth as much as you do." She extended her arms, pushing her hands to his chest to shove him away.

"Don't project on me; don't even act like you're biased opinion is fact…or gold, or something. You don't know and I don't know, no one knows!" She stepped back as he tread closer.

"That's fine; say that all you want but you have to know that it isn't the truth. You could never lead such an existence with someone like him, why are you even pretending?" He asked harshly, sadistically enjoying the brief flash of confusion and pain flit across her face.

He wanted to hurt her; he wanted to poke and prod until she surrendered all pretenses and forsook the comfortable lies. He felt a compulsive desire to injure her, to make her feel what he felt. He knew it wouldn't make him feel better, if anything it would damage him to an equal or greater extent, but it was better than nothing. He wanted, no, _needed_ her to feel something.

She shook her head adamantly. "I'm not pretending; you are. I can't trust you! You are everything that's wrong and twisted; you are the embodiment of corruption and…and, lies. I don't love you!" It was then that she realized it was a lie, a vicious and soul ripping lie that sucked the air straight out of her.

Chloe had never said it aloud, she had never tried to convince anyone else through words, and her actions spoke for themselves. But she could feel it, as the words formed and were expelled from her that they were not true. She was a hypocrite, insisting that Lex was a liar while on the time she was deceiving herself and everyone around her.

He could see it, for one brief moment he saw that glimpse of realization flicker and die in her eyes. Her lips pursed as she tried to recover, but it was too late. He knew, and if he had persisted even when he thought her unreceptive, would he ever surrender now that he realized that she wasn't as over it as she would have him believe?

Lex's eyes widened and his lips curled into a self-satisfied smirk, but he didn't comment further and Chloe began speaking without quite knowing what it was she said. "I'll get you my questions, and I want you to leave. And I'd prefer if you left for good. You're the Commander in Chief, how can you possibly spend this much time in Kansas anyway? I'll go to my new job in my new cubicle and you can go back to the White House and continue to lie to the general public. Sounds like a good arrangement, no?" It wasn't really a question, but he answered nonetheless.

"You get a corner office, not a cubicle and I have advisors. I'm not going anywhere."

She frowned, fighting the wave of confusing and inevitable tears. "I wish you would." And that was the truth. She handed him three sheets of paper, front and backs completely covered before stepping away.

"You know me very well and have obviously distrusted my motives and intentions from the start, so I've always been curious, why was it that you weren't more vocal against me when I was campaigning for the Presidency?"

Chloe pondered for a moment before surrendering any attempt at tact. "You scare me." She stated simply, uncertain as to how he would react to this bit of news.

"How so?" He asked with a professional sounding curiosity.

"I don't think you have a conscience and you will stop at nothing to get what you want. I think you're endangering the world, but I'm not sure how. If Lana was telling the truth, we're all in for a rude awakening." She said with a strange mixture of anger and regret.

"I appreciate your honesty, I really do, but it's not the world I'm after." He said.

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair frantically. "Then why are you doing all of this?" Chloe didn't expect him to answer, and she wasn't disappointed,

He moved toward the door, mulling this all over. "Would you ever say 'stop, if you love me, stop'?" He asked, turning to face her.

She shook her head resolutely, recalling the quote with reminiscent sadness. "Not in a thousand years."

Lex's face broke out into a smile, glad that she remembered the movie. "That's my girl." He turned the knob to leave but her voice stopped him.

"I'm not your girl." She said without her usual anger or persuasion. It was a statement of fact, and he could respect that.

He surprised her by shrugging, no flicker of anger or defiance. "You're not his, either."

**Don't know why, but that last little exchange is probably my favorite in the entire story. Please tell me how you feel, likes and dislikes, etc.**


	24. A Jolt of Reality

**I am so glad everybody seems to like the story! Hope you guys like this chapter :) At first I made it a bit longer, but I decided to push some Clark/Chloe stuff to next chapter, as there's something to look forward to!**

**FLASHBACK**

Chloe stood, frozen and in disbelief. She couldn't...no, wouldn't believe it. "No," she said, surprised by the weakness of her own voice. She pressed her hands to her forehead and sunk to the floor, forsaking the nearby chair for the comfort of the carpet. She didn't know when the tears started falling but it was only a matter of moments before Lex's tasteful carpet was soaked.

The logical portion of her brain was scolding her emotional outburst, insisting that she pull herself together and get out before it was too late, but Chloe found herself incapable of obeying that simple command. She grasped onto the fibers roughly as sobs wracked through her body like a cancerous entity, ripping and destroying in such quick succession that it knocked the air from her lungs more effectively than a punch to the gut.

She hated that he was capable of doing this to her, that she could be so weak and pathetic, that she could be so similar to those who she previously derided and looked down upon. She was stronger than this, better than this, but all of the positive self-talk in the world didn't change the fact that here she was, on the floor, sprawled out like some pathetic damsel in distress.

She had loved him, it wasn't a question or a possibility, and he hadn't cared. She felt intensely violated and found herself compulsively picking apart their past conversations, wondering if she had missed indicators, if he had meant when he said after they made love, if he had ever wanted some sort of a future with her at all. The possibilities were endless, and with the loss of certainty came the crumbling of trust. Her insecurities amplified tenfold and shock and disbelief gave way to something infinitely more sinister.

And just like that, it was over. It was gone in the blink of an eye, the life she had built in her mind, the future she had begun to imagine and had been too afraid to voice. It had crumbled into dust, and even as Chloe grappled with the dimensions of his betrayal she could feel it...the absolute resolve, the certainty that accompanied the intense and bone crushing pain. She knew that there was no possibility of reconciliation, no alternative to the course that must be taken. She tried to wrack her brain for some sort of resolution, attempted to construct a plan but found herself incapable of rational thought. Her mind was in a fog and through this haze she felt the growing presence of finality.

Physical pain couldn't compare to this, and she had been in precarious predicaments before. The anger, pain and sadness was nothing in comparison to the all ecompassing feeling of loss and desperation. She was always quick to suspect and eager to unearth and investigate objectively, but that innate desire was gone. Her reporter instincts were numbed and crushed out of her. If she were being honest with herself, she'd realize that for once she didn't want the truth. She just wanted it to be a lie.

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**EIGHT DAYS EARLIER**

When Chloe woke up she had three voicemails and no underpants. Lex hardly contested her suggestion that they rendezvous at his place and while she knew that he had to get up early in the morning, she was still saddened when she woke up alone. She vaguely remembered him kissing her forehead before departing, but the memory could have easily been a dream instead of actuality.

Even after all this time, she was still stunned at the appearance of Lex's mansion, especially the wing that he seemed to have reserved for their personal use. It fit her style, as she was certain he intended it to, and yet everything was so breathtakingly tasteful and well maintained that she couldn't even compare it to her apartment. He had obviously instructed the servants to never bother her when she was present, seeing as she had yet to see a maid in this wing of the house. She took a quick shower in the pristine bathroom before turning to her phone.

They rarely spent the night in his, well, _castle _due entirely to her own silliness. She tried to explain her rationale, but the truth was not even she entirely understood why she was so against slumber parties at Luthor Manor. But as she glanced around the general splendor of their beautiful room, she felt what she had been fighting for so long. She honestly didn't want to leave, it was almost embarrassing for her to admit that she was one of those silly girls in love. While the idea of a lifetime commitment scared the bejeezus out of her, it was hard to deny the fact that she wanted to be in his life, for better or worse. _What __am I waiting for?_

She banished the thought and smiled as she reviewed Clark's messages with a satirical ear. Per usual, he couldn't stand to just remain still and inactive in the safety of her apartment, he had already flown to multiple provinces, thwarted a bank robbery and intervened in a civil war. He had an ear out for his would-be kidnappers, but his contacts were coming up surprisingly empty. He had reviewed the updated freak list that Chloe had created concerning any and all possible and definite meteor infected people and cross-referenced it with any people harboring a grudge against him and nothing seemed promising.

The third message was from a very dour Lois who wondered where the heck her cousin had disappeared off to, leaving her with hours of torturous unpacking to accomplish all on her lonesome. "If you abandoned me for a booty call you are going to seriously owe me, cuz. Call me back." Chloe smiled indulgently at the petulant sound of her cousin's voice before calling back.

"Hey, Lois, it's me...as I'm sure the caller ID and the sound of my chirpy voice indicated." She said as soon as she reached the message machine, rattling off her apologies before hanging up. She addressed Clark's multiple calls next, surprised when he picked up on the second ring.

"Are you currently flying through the air with the greatest of ease?" She teased.

He laughed and cleared his throat. "No, that's the man on the flying trapeze, but it's an easy mistake to make." He justified. "I'm at work, are you coming in?" He tried to curb his enthusiasm per usual, and this time it was a success. He sometimes questioned his motives surrounding Chloe, he felt as though there was a line drawn in faded chalk that he needed to steer clear of, but he could never tell when he was crossing it.

Perhaps their friendship clouded his judgment, but he couldn't help but feel a spike of jealousy every time Lex was mentioned or even offhandedly referred to. Clark staunchly and repeatedly told himself that these feelings were purely out of an objective concern for Chloe. He had never been forced to face this problem beforehand, she rarely became involved and when she dated the relationships fizzled quickly due to her workaholic tendencies as well as the fact that she tended to automatically and detrimentally put Clark before all others. He rarely had to face the possibility of 'losing' her to someone else, and now he could feel it happening.

He knew that it was petty and pathetic to feel threatened by the possibility of Chloe moving forward, but he couldn't help but feel left behind. He had so long ago banished any idea of pursuing a romantic relationship with her that he refused to acknowledge the possibility, or more likely _probability _that his jealousy stemmed from more than just his distrust of Lex.

Chloe cradled the phone in the nook of her shoulder as she dried her hair. "Maybe a little later, but I don't think it's necessary right now. Be honest, how long did you actually stay at my place? Twenty minutes? And hour, tops, right?"

The tell-tale silence on the other end indicated that she was right. "I couldn't really sleep," he said as way of apology, but Chloe just rolled her eyes indulgently.

"Of course you couldn't, not while there are diamond thieves terrorizing obscure nations and wars being waged all over the world!"

She could sense his sheepish smile on the other line and felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips as well. "I just wanted to make sure that everything was...okay with you and, uh, _him_." Oh, so it was _that _kind of call. She had engaged in one of these pep talks with Clark on numerous occasions, always awkward and stilted, but sincere nonetheless. She found it hard to imagine discussing her romantic life with Clark, especially since he had been so vocal against their relationship from the start.

Chloe wriggled into her robe anxiously and sighed. "Yeah, it's all alright. He was pissed, what's new?" Her voice constricted and her cheeks flushed, it felt weird and awkward to discuss her relationship with Clark.

It didn't seem much more natural for him. "Ahem, good, that's good that it's all...okay, or alright, or whatever." He muttered nervously. "I just didn't want him to think that it's a problem, I mean, that you came over. Did he...um, say anything?" This was like pulling teeth.

Chloe shook her head instinctively. "No, no...well, okay, that's a lie. Yes, he did, per usual. I know you don't want to be quote unquote kept in the loop, or be forcibly shoved into the loop, but everything's fine with you and me. He can just get over it." She said with false cheer. She always preferred to forget about Lex's ridiculous and petulant jealousies after they were resolved, but it wasn't always easy. But who said love had to be easy? _Certainly not Clark and Lana..._Chloe jolted forward, horrified by the errant thought. _No...it's nothing like that._

"It's fine...any degree of looping or, or loopiness is okay." He promised. "I know what I said...but I just feel like, well, am I just being paranoid? It's just...it feels sort of weird with us and I just want to..." Chloe sighed.

"Everything's _fine_." She said, pausing for a moment. "Okay, I lied again. You're not being paranoid, things have been a little weird." She admitted, feeling strange admitting this while mostly naked.

She heard his breathing but he didn't speak for a moment. "I know, it seems like the only time we talk anymore is when I'm in some kind of mortal danger. I was thinking last night and...well, we haven't even had a real conversation in weeks."

She prepared to deny this, but logic stopped her. "Yeah, I've noticed too. Since you're evading kidnappers by staying in my apartment maybe this'll be the boost we need." She teased, but there was nothing remotely funny about this situation.

"Yeah, maybe." He agreed mindlessly. "But I...well, I miss just being able to hang out with you." She wondered if he recognized the parallels between her and Lex and he with Lana. Did he ever realize that she had felt the exact same way, isolated and unappreciated, frequently feeling like a second class citizen? Every time the two rekindled their relationship she felt as though her friendship and emotional support took a back seat to Clark's numerous attempts to stay with Lana. She couldn't help but question whether things would have been different if she had confided her insecurities, but she quickly banished the thought. It felt too much like regret.

"We still can, it's just, well, different with Lex in the picture and you mysteriously flitting off to foreign nations on a weekly basis. But I'm scott free today, are you busy this afternoon?" She asked, desperate to change the subject. It made her uncomfortable, talking to Clark about Lex. Since the start of their relationship, the pair had been so mutually exclusive that discussing one with the other was about as pleasant as having teeth pulled.

"Well I just have to finish up an article before Symone kills me and then I just have to stop by the farm to pick up some things. Maybe we could meet at that coffee place you like, I can order you one of those complicated things with caramel that costs more than I make in an hour." He tempted jokingly.

Chloe furrowed her brow, popping a squat on the closed toilet. "That sounds great but you're actually going back there? You don't need to, I can get whatever you want. I don't have anything on the agenda today, I can definitely stop over."

She could practically hear Clark shaking his head. "No, it's fine, I can do it as soon as I'm done. You'll be glad to hear that I called a home security agency, because I am sick of coming home to find destructive strangers staging an ambush." He stated with evident pride, but his attempt to change the subject didn't go unacknowledged.

"Congratulations, I'll help you think of an effective security code other than your birthday. And it's no problem, you get your work done and I'll pick up some of your clothes and whatever you want. I've got time to kill." He flatly refused, saying that it was potential dangerous and as usual she cut straight through the nonsense and convinced him that it was the most logical route to be taken.

She needed alone time in a neutral space; namely Lex-free. It was hard to focus when the Suzy Homemaker in her was pumping her system full of warm and bubbling estrogen. Even when they were in the midst of a fight she still felt obnoxiously complete. It certainly wasn't easy, but it felt right and it felt good and even when they were shouting at each other she still couldn't imagine being with anyone else.

While Chloe usually preferred to discourage Lex's outrageous habit of trying to supply her with any and everything she could possibly ever desire, she decided to borrow one of the many cars he offered her. She tried to make a modest selection, but it was no easy task when the selection varied from Ferraris to Lamborghinis and Porsches.

Her final selection was a six month old silver Porsche 911, and as she pulled up the drive she noticed that the Kent farm seemed oddly silent, and despite the fact that only a day had passed since it's occupant had left the grounds, it already felt abandoned. She stalked through the grounds silently, wondering why it was that she felt the need to be secretive. As she turned the corner past the kitchen, she came face to face with a man who did not belong. Well, face to face is inaccurate, he had his back to her as he ripped out the drawers of one of Martha's old desks.

Her heart pounded hard and fast in her chest, rattling her rib cage. Chloe tried to control her breathing but felt hyperventilation begin to kick in. She was trapped like an animal, and she had walked in on a predator. She surveyed her surroundings, desperate for some sort of cover, but there was none to be had. If he turned around, so much as glanced over his shoulder he would see her, frozen and helpless like a deer in the headlights without any sort of protection.

Her shaking hand found its way into her purse, patting the various junk in a frantic and silent search for her pepper spray. Lex had insisted upon her carrying it at all times and she recalled rolling her eyes and nodding condescendingly before tucking it in her back just for the sake of keeping the peace. She had been attacked by meteor freaks on a fairly consistent basis since puberty and was fairly certain that none of them were going to be deterred by a spray of mace, but this guy seemed human. For once she felt incredibly thankful for Lex's overly protective paranoia.

He rifled impatiently through the drawers with human impatience and ineptitude, carrying a gun on his hip, a very mortal thing to do. She felt the canister between her fingers and slowly removed it, taking tentative steps forward. The logical thought to turn and run never occurred to her, it wasn't even an option. She knew beyond sense and reason that this man was one of the men who had come after Clark. She couldn't explain her certainty, but as her stomach clenched she realized that he was not quite as inept as she would have previously thought.

He turned and lunged, sensing her presence and acting on it within a split second. She screamed, unable to stop the girlish reaction as she fumbled with the pepper spray before discharging it. Chloe hadn't extended her arms far enough and soon found herself exploding with pain as the mace stung her eyes and struck his directly. She stepped back, dropping her only form of weaponry in surprise, clutching her face in pain and coughing. Even her throat stung from the airborne poison.

The man cried out in intense pain, tears and snot dripping down his face and dribbling on his chin as he swatted at her aggressively, grabbing her hair and jerking her forward. "Hold…still!" He demanded as she dodged his blundering hands. He reached blindly, yanking out a handful of her hair before reaching into his pocket and grabbing a small black oddly shaped box. She barely had a moment to wonder what it was before a current of electricity roared through her body and everything turned to black.

**PLEASE REVIEW! I'm already starting the other chapters so I'd really like to know what you all think.**


	25. Eggs and Hostages

**Ah, nothing like the smell of a new chapter just in time for Thanksgiving. Thank you all so much for your reviews, I really appreciate the feedback.**

The alarm blared and pulled Chloe out of a deep sleep and jerked her into reality. Ah, her first day on the job. She hadn't had one of these in so long that she hardly remembered what it was like. The anxious butterflies were squashed by the leaden dread that encased her entire being. She listened to the raucous sound ricochet off of her walls for a while, contemplating turning it off and going back to sleep before forcing herself out of bed.

Clark was already in the kitchen, eggs scrambled and on low heat while the bacon sizzled on a paper towel laden plate. She smiled broadly and genuinely as he zoomed toward the refrigerator and disappeared from her view, pouring two glasses in hyper speed and setting the table in the span of three seconds.

"Good morning." He said cheerfully, coming to a quick stop.

She laughed at his eagerness as he scooped her up in his arms and took her to the kitchen table, dropping her into a chair. "How long have you been here?" She asked as he brought the food over, gallantly offering Chloe the serving spoon before taking his own seat.

He smiled mischievously. "Less than an hour, I wanted to get you fueled for your first day as a minion of LuthorCorp." He said teasingly. She swatted his arm playfully and filled her plate, moaning happily as she scooped a spoonful of eggs into her mouth.

"Good god, how did you do that?" She asked, swallowing quickly and quickly taking another bite. "Ah, I usually just eat Pop Tarts!"

He followed suit, inhaling his plate and chasing the eggs and bacon with a gulp of orange juice. "It's important to eat a good breakfast." He chided predictably, passing the salt before she asked for it.

"Did everything go alright in California? Were they able to resolve that hostage situation?" She asked, glancing at her watch to make sure she had enough time.

He nodded slowly, frowning in confusion. "How'd you know about that?" He asked.

She blushed; uncertain as to why she still reacted like a girl with a crush all these years later. There was no middle ground for her, despite her best efforts. She was able to move on and be a friend…well, that was a drastic understatement. Try as they may, friend didn't quite encompass what it was they were for each other. She was his sole confidant, and Chloe's connection to Clark had always been unparalleled and unchallenged.

Now she was uncomfortable with the amount of openness she found herself able of when she was with him. There were no facades or repressed emotions, and she was completely and entirely incapable of hiding behind her own veneer. They had been so close for so long, they knew no other way.

"It was on the eleven o'clock news and it reeked of you. Hostages mysteriously appearing, dazed outside the building? The gunman being heard firing blindly with no casualties? Sometimes you amaze even me." She nudged his foot with her own and was surprised when his cheeks reddened as well.

"Luckily not everyone knows me like you do, and I barely got out but the bad guy was caught and the hostages released. He told the arresting officers that an invincible man came after him, apparently." He said with a frown. "And of course there is some gossip about how the situation was handled." He was still in denial and she didn't want to be the one to shake it out of him, not yet. Perhaps he was simply clinging onto the last thread of hope before it was ripped out from beneath him. Chloe froze for a moment, fork suspended in the air as she realized that the first serious magazine to have a credited and factual article on Superman was lying on the counter less than a yard away.

Chloe wanted to ease him into it, this was a new reality they were living in and she knew that it wasn't going to be easy for someone so set in his ways like Clark to accept that times they were a'changing. She smiled weakly and nudged him. "Well, I don't know if you're secret is going to stay so secret for long. The speculation that there is, indeed, a Superman is becoming less of a myth and more of a possibility." She admitted, surprised by his lack of reaction.

"Yeah, there's already been plenty of news coverage about it." He added glumly, forking in his last mouthful.

She shrugged and touched his arm hesitantly; still uncertain as to whether or not she needed to abide by any boundaries. "I think it's good for everyone, Clark. In times like these people really need to believe in something, or someone." She said, frowning as she considered Lex's through the roof approval rates in comparison to the rotting center of the world's moral compass.

"I mean…you've been doing this for so long and people are noticing the positive changes in the world. You're making the stereotypical guys in black hats shake in their figurative boots. I know you want anonymity and you don't want to accept any of the praise that comes with acting as an agent of good, but maybe you could let your alter ego get a little boost." She suggested.

He nodded, but she knew it was only so he could have some action to occupy himself with. She knew he was unconvinced and would likely remain as such for a long time. "I really think what you're doing is amazing." Chloe insisted sincerely. "You're the best man I know, by far, so cheer up!" She demanded, finally earning a genuine smile.

"That's not much of a competition, is it?" He replied. "I mean it's me...the sandwich guy..." He counted off on his fingers, catching her hand instinctively as she moved to hit him. He flicked her wrist, twisting her arm so that her shoulder instantly hit the kitchen table. "You know the drill, Chlo."

"Wow." She grunted, going limp. "You are the best. Uncle. No one can twist my arm like you can."

Chloe glanced at her watch and jumped up, heading to the bathroom. Clark waited patiently; watching in amusement as she simultaneously brushed her teeth and applied deodorant. She ran to her room and closed the door out of habit, momentarily forgetting Clark's super ability and lucky that he was too much of a gentleman to invade her privacy.

She quickly pulled up her knee highs and a pair of navy dress pants before slipping on her boring flats. She shimmied into a lacy, albeit dull, top and kicked the bedroom door open and walking into the kitchen. Clark materialized beside her, purse in hand with a smug and amused smile playing on his face.

"Good man," Chloe said, accepting the bag gratefully. Clark held the door open gallantly as she skipped out, in turn holding open the entrance to the stairwell. They were like a well-oiled machine, anticipating each other's actions with ease and familiarity.

He looked her up and down and nodded in approval. "You look very…professional." He said, touching the fluttering fabric of her shirt as she headed down the stairs. She smiled and reached for his hand, pulling him along with her.

As they approached the end of the stairwell Clark froze and Chloe got whiplash from the force of the stop. "Wait, do we have time?" He asked, lifting Chloe's arm and checking her watch. When she nodded he pulled her close to him and pressed his lips to hers, strategically wrapping his arms around her waist before he spun her whimsically. She laughed, kissing his neck and throat as he pushed her up against the spackle spattered wall.

"Do you think it would be bad to quit on my first day?" She teased, for the first time noticing that her feet were a foot clear off the ground.

Clark smiled grimly, "I'm not sure Lex would let you." Ah, if there was anything that could kill the mood it was the mention of the 'L' word.

"Yeah, you've got a lot to learn, bucko." She said, swatting his shoulder. "You don't mention an ex...well, you don't mention _Lex _when you want to get busy in a staircase."

He pressed himself against her but freed his hands, searching his pockets. "Maybe I should take notes..." He placed her on the floor and took her by the hand. "We should get going." She nodded in agreement and stepped into the deserted lobby.

"I don't think notes are necessary...though common sense wouldn't be detrimental." She teased, nudging his arm. Clark turned his face, smiling and embarrassed. "So, instead of attempting a lame segue, I'm just going to ask...has Symone sold my office off to the highest bidder yet?" She winced in anticipation.

"Not quite, it seems like she's allowing a sort of mourning period...but she's already edging around the bull pen to see who might be interested." He admitted. "Lois seems to be a frontrunner, she doesn't want your desk to go to anyone else. The woman's like a pit bull." Chloe took that as a compliment.

"Good, I'd like to keep it in the family."

Clark nodded in agreement, but she found that more often than not he was mostly in agreement with her. She wondered if this was the honeymoon period, the time where everything was at its peak, but once she looked into his eyes she knew that this was one excuse she could cross off her laundry list of potential defects in their relationship. She was running out of reasons why it wouldn't work and as terrified as that made her, she couldn't help but be relieved by his behavior. While there was certainly much more kissing than before, he was still the same man she had always knew.

"Yeah, that way you get some occasional visiting hours, I'm sure she'll be flexible, I've already got a verbal agreement and if she goes back on her word I promise to convince her to reverse the decision by any means necessary." He assured her, squeezing Chloe's hand. Sometimes he thought he might just roll over and wake up realizing that it's all a dream like some lame cop-out mystery movie.

She lifted their linked hands up and kissed the palm of his hand. "While I appreciate your willingness to rough up my cousin, I have the utmost confidence in Lois but if that fails me I can always count on you. I might not visit though, too many memories." She sighed wistfully.

"Do you want to take a cab...or are you in the mood for a little flying?" His eagerness was uncontainable and it brought a smile to her face.

"I don't think either will be necessary, it's only a few blocks away." She hated to burst his bubble, but he took it in stride. "Did you happen to see that article in the Gazette?" She asked, trying to play it cool but knowing that it couldn't last for very long.

He stiffened and nodded, glum but resolved. "Yeah, I saw it while you were getting ready. It was on the news this morning, and it wasn't even one of those tabloids, either." They both knew that it was only a matter of time before Superman's existence became general knowledge, but he had always hoped that it would happen later rather than sooner. "What do you think is going to happen?" He asked as they turned a corner.

She considered playing the part of supportive and naive shoulder to lean on, but knew that he deserved better than lies and half truths. "I don't know, but it'll definitely make things more complicated. It's a miracle you've been able to stay relatively anonymous for so long as it is, but we can't change the past. It's been a generally acknowledged myth for so long that I don't think many people will be surprised, at least." She offered, hoping that it was some kind of consolation.

"I know you're right but it's just...how many other articles are there going to be? What if someone finds out that I'm...well, a skin tight suit and slicked back hair isn't much of a disguise. How long will it be before people put the pieces together?" The fear and worry was clear in the tone of his voice, and Chloe once again felt the irrational desire to protect him, but the urge was gone as quickly as it had surfaced. "What about...Lex?" He asked, mouth curling into a grimace at the mention of his name. "The government is going to hone in on me and it's only going to be a matter of time until he gets some of his men on this."

She paused and wondered why she hadn't told Clark that Lex knew everything already. Her own divided feelings made her question her motives, was it simply to shield Clark from the fear and paranoia that would accompany such a realization? Or was she still trying to protect Lex, all these years later? She couldn't help but marvel at why it was that whenever Clark mentioned Lex or anything remotely related to him, her first instinct was to lie through her teeth. She cast a furtive glance toward him and could see the horror and sincerity branded in his expression.

"He knows," She blurted out, incapable of stopping herself. Before he could so much as react, she plowed on. "He's known for...a long time and I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, but I just didn't think...well, I didn't know how to say it and I didn't want to upset you. I, just, I should've told you, I know that, but it's just that." He stopped dead in his tracks, jerking her into a stand-still.

He turned his head, brows furrowed and confusion evident. "How long has he known? Did you tell him?" He asked, disappointment and uncertainty flowing into his voice. She found this more compelling than Lex's jealous shouting.

Chloe shook her head quickly, eyes instinctively drifting toward her watch. "Of course not, I would never..._have _never told anyone your secret before and I never will. He just, well, you know how he can be." She finished lamely, but Clark's confused expression pushed her forward. "When we were together he was always jealous...of you and I should've know, should have realized that he would have no scruples investigating into you and he's pretty much admitted that that's what he did." She wondered why it was that she was withholding information and it once more begged the question, who was she protecting?

Clark started to walk once more, but their hands remained separate. "While you were together? How long has he known?"

"Going on seven years." She admitted, deciding the evasiveness was not the proper course of action. She let this sink in before attempting an explanation. "He just...I don't know why I didn't tell you. I am so sorry, it's just, I can't even understand why he still has this hold on me." It was more than she had ever been willing to admit aloud. She turned discreetly to study his face and was surprised by his lack of surprise.

She went on, "I just...you never asked why we broke up."

Clark shrugged, "At the time we weren't really talking too much." Chloe winced, she had pushed herself to forget that dark time in her life and was shocked that he was so willing to reference it. He took note of her facial expression and nodded. "It was a weird time. I think...that's when I knew for sure that I really needed to have you in my life." Chloe smiled and patted his arm.

"Me too, Clark. And if I'm being honest, I was glad at the time. I didn't want to talk about it." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder loosely as they approached the building. Chloe felt as though it should look darker and more sinister, with lightning flashing in the background but her new workplace looked normal in comparison to what she had visualized. She craned her neck as she tried to catch a glimpse of his face. "I'm really glad we're together Clark."

She caught a flash of a smile before he responded. "Well, are we together?" He asked, obviously leading her.

Chloe frowned. "I thought so, but I guess there was no official proclamation." She considered this for a moment. "Good point, now go and buy me twelve dozen roses and come to my apartment window to serenade me at midnight." She suggested as they lingered by the entance of LuthorCorp, jostled by the flow of employees in and out of the institution.

"Is that what you want? Because, as I'm sure you know, I'm pretty tone deaf. But...Chloe Sullivan," he took her hands in his firmly, engaging in eye contact as he tried to keep from laughing. "Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked.

Chloe shrugged. "Eh, I dunno about that. I think you might have to convince me..." He twirled her around dramatically and dipped her before planting a kiss square on her lips. When they broke apart she was embarrassingly breathless and tangled in his arms. "Okay, color me convinced. Got a pin you want to slap on me?"

Clark shook his head. "I don't feel the need to mark my territory and you're going to be late." He hinted, gesturing toward the door.

She sighed, discontent. "I wonder if I could get myself fired the first day." She pondered aloud.

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that would just provoke Lex to come after you and drag you to work." Before he had finished his train of thought Chloe turned for the entrance quickly and waved to Clark.

"I am not going to take that chance. Wish me luck!"

Clark smiled and tucked his hands into the pockets in his coat. "Good luck, I'll stop by with those flowers and a jukebox tonight." He promised, eyes quickly changing from normal to x-ray as Chloe stepped into the lobby and faced the security personnel. He waited for nearly ten minutes, monitoring her movements before turning around and heading toward the Daily Planet.

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**FLASHBACK**

As consciousness ebbed back, Chloe's mind registered the fact that she had been tasered. Her legs felt like pudding and her arms were limb and useless appendages that only seemed to weigh her down. It took moments of stirring before she even realized that she was handcuffed.

The room wasn't familiar, and the old phrase ran through her head, _Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore_. She could have laughed at her own stupidity but her mouth wasn't cooperating. This wasn't Clark's humble abode any longer, she knew this much. Chloe wondered how long she had been unconscious before deciding that 'wondering' was irrelevant.

She felt so horribly and uselessly ordinary. She had nothing to pick the lock with and knew that struggling against her binds would be as fruitless as it was painful. She heard voices nearby, a man's voice. "…I don't care. What the hell am I supposed to do?" He asked, desperate and incapable of volume control.

"I don't know who the fuck she is…why does it matter? Uh huh, uh huh, yeah, she's Chloe Sullivan, according to her driver's license. Well you said I'd be undisturbed and…well, and then she showed up!" He snapped defensively.

She strained her ears, missing a mutter before he shouted once more. "Well, I didn't kill her!" Chloe rolled her eyes at the comment, as though that alone was worthy of praise. "Yeah, yeah…I dunno, she's handcuffed and knocked out. Hey, I just drove the car...do you want to talk to..." Another man interrupted.

"Hand me the phone. Yes, this is he. That woman sprayed a can of mace in my face. Yes, I just treated the mild burns. I apologize for my uncouth colleague, Of course it was incredibly painful, no, we didn't acquire the desired information. She interrupted." He listened for a moment.

"Well, I panicked, she just showed up out of nowhere. Well, he wasn't home, obviously. I couldn't find anything of interest around the house, but I wasn't there for long…" Chloe cringed as she shook her legs, pins and needles painfully pricking her limbs.

"Certainly, I'll take her back. Yes, I am well aware that it would be too high profile if she were to just disappear. That's why he called you. What if she can identify me? Okay, okay, fine, I'll bring her back to that Kent place. Will he be home?" Even through the door she could hear the muffled sound of panic.

Chloe blinked stupidly, still lethargic. She didn't hear the door creak open but in an instant a shadow covered her and as she screamed, she was zapped once more.

**Tell me what you guys think! And does anyone know around when Chloe's birthday is?**


	26. Love

**Thanks so much for your reviews, I hope you like this latest installment. I pushed it up a few days and TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!**

**FLASHBACK**

The jarring sound of clanging sirens pulled Chloe abruptly into consciousness. She panicked at her limited range of motion before realizing that she must have been strapped down to a stretcher. "I'm sorry, you really can't be in here. Family only..." An unfamiliar voice demanded.

"I am. Well, almost, at least. We're engaged." She felt relief mingled with confusion at the sound of Lex's agitated voice.

"I don't see a ring." Even in her groggy state she could detect the skepticism.

Lex barely paused before cooking up a quick lie. "It must have been stolen by whoever attacked her."

"Fine, sir, but you really can't be in here." It was then that she realized that someone else must have been present.

She would recognize Clark's despondent sigh in any state of duress. "She's family. This was my fault, I'm staying." There was a strange power in his voice that compelled the paramedic to allow him in the ambulance as well.

She tried to open her eyes but found herself incapable. "Lex?" Her voice was weak and raw from unuse but she felt instantly better when she felt his warm hand encase hers and squeeze tightly.

"I'm here, Chlo. Just relax, try and go back to sleep. You're okay, you're going to be just fine. Just sleep." He whispered, unwilling to budge as the paramedic checked her vitals. "What the hell happened to her? Why was she even there?" There was a drastic change in tone that alerted her that he was questioning Clark and the tell-tale and unfounded jealousy left a biting edge.

"She was...we were meeting and she was..." Clark's voice cracked and it took Chloe a moment to realize that he must've been crying.

Lex caressed the back of her hand and kissed it quickly. "I can't believe this...what was she doing? And where were you?"

His offensive tone did not sit well with Clark. "I don't answer to you." The hostility was so blatant that even the neutral paramedic shied away in embarrassment. "How did this...who would do this? I checked the house..." Chloe bet that he did...several dozen times. "I went to check the apartment, call the police and when we came back...she was there. Just...laying there, on the floor..." His voice cracked again, and the hatred and defensiveness whittled away into woeful self-directed anger.

Lex's emotions were much more constant. "And you sent her to fetch your bags like your little servant when it was recently broken into? What the hell is wrong with you?" He demanded, but before Clark could answer the ambulance came to an abrupt stop and Chloe lapsed back into unconsciousness.

When she awoke she was in a hospital bed and Clark was dozing in the adjacent chair and Lex was still holding her hand. "How did they get me out of that ambulance and in this bed with you gripping my hand?" She asked, wincing at the raspy sound of her voice. He had a glass of water at the ready and tipped her head back to pour it down her throat.

"I don't know what the hell it is you see in him." He whispered, gesturing angrily toward the slumbering Clark.

She smiled grimly. "Funny, he said the same about you." He squeezed her hand affectionately.

"I'm sure he's not the only one. I'm surprised you're not attacking me with questions."

Chloe blinked and went on her natural tirade. "Oh, I was just warming up. How long have I been out? Are there any drugs in my system? Did they find the guy who took me? What the hell was he looking for? Did we get engaged when I was unconscious?"

Lex smiled and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. "About three hours, yes, there was a sedative in your blood sample, no whoever attacked you got away for now, I don't know to what that question was referring and if you want to we can get engaged right now." If she had been paying attention Chloe would have noticed Clark's shift in posture as he allegedly slept, but she was far too dazed to take in her surroundings.

"You are awfully persistent. I'm in a hospital and recently the victim of an attack and you're still trying to weasel your way into marriage." She tried to keep her tone light but her concern was evident. "You haven't asked how I am."

Lex frowned. "I didn't want to bring it up and upset you and the police are going to want to question you as soon as they can wiggle their way in. I can stall for as long as you want me to, but they're going to talk to you." She knew this already, but hearing it confirmed allowed her to feel the beginning stages of panic.

"Whenever they ask, you can let them in." She was never going to be more prepared than she was now and after years of lying for Clark it would be easy to edit around the crazy and incredibly unlikely sections.

He furrowed his eyebrow, per usual all too concerned with her ability to handle herself in a pressured situation. He frequently forgot that she was one of the most capable women in his acquaintance simply because he loved her.

"Are you sure you're up to that?" He took one look at her expression and changed tacks. "I don't want to upset you but...what happened? Why were you..." He stopped himself hen he felt is voice rise an octave and his emotions began to get the better of him.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure I can handle it. I talked to Clark while I was at your place and we were going to meet for lunch...he just needed some things from the farm. I went in and this...this guy was just right in there, in Martha's old desk, ripping out papers and I guess...I think he must have seen me?" She wracked her brain, memory fuzzy and disoriented. "I was zapped by one of those taser thingies...twice, I think."

His grip tightened on her hand instinctively and protectively before realizing that he might be causing pain. "I was so...I can't even think of a word to explain it. Chloe, I know this isn't an ideal time...but I love you so much. I am just warning you that I've got a ring, I've got a speech and I've got a time frame." He informed her in a brisk and businesslike manner.

Chloe pulled her hand away, anxiously plucking at her fingernails. "Can you at least wait until I'm not hooked up to an IV to propose?" She asked, feeling her cheeks flush as a blinding smile stretched across Lex's face.

"Whatever you want, though I have to admit that waiting does appeal to me. I want you vertical and capable of jumping up and down and having passionate and mind blowing sex afterward." Clark grunted and successfully disguised it as a snore, shifting position while clearly still listening.

"Are you so sure that I'll say yes? Maybe you overestimated your affect on me." She teased, taking another long sip of water to soothe her aching throat.

Lex thought for less than a moment before nodding with absolute certainty. "Yes, I am pretty positive. I've gone over the evidence countless times and it all points to the same conclusion." He said. "I've already had a member of my staff draft up an engagement announcement. You can have final say, of course."

She laughed, wincing at the pain it evoked. "You are _so _cocky!"

His hand flew to his chest, feigning pain. "I prefer confident. Cocky has negative connotations, I'm afraid."

"You're awfully wrapped up in semantics for someone so self-assured. I think you're a little more anxious about my answer than you'd let me believe."

He mimicked her eye roll. "If I'm being honest, I'm always more anxious around you than I'd have you believe. I can get the police to leave you alone for at least a week if you want, I don't think it's a good idea for you to exert yourself so soon after this...this upset." It was her turn to roll her eyes.

"I'm not some delicate little flower, I can handle it. It's probably best to get it over with right away, like yanking off a Band Aid." He seemed dissatisfied by her example. He probably never deigned to use something so common as a Band Aid, he seemed like more of an ace bandage type.

"You never let me protect you." He complained, certain that it was fruitless but that didn't change his feelings. She was well aware of the fact that he was accustomed to the damsel in distress types.

"I don't need you to." She said simply. "You can bring them in, I think I can hear them pacing the hallway." He smiled and kissed her forehead, coming to his feet reluctantly.

"You're sure?" She nodded and shooed him away, unsurprised when Clark was up and alert the moment the door closed behind Lex.

"Are you okay?" She frowned at the obvious question, but figured it was just a pleasantry.

"Yeah, of course. Well, I guess I'm a little shaken up." She admitted, knowing that he would be listening to her heartbeat. He was as good as a human lie detector.

"I am...I knew I shouldn't have let you go. Why did they take you? What did they do to you?" He seemed to be interrogating himself more than her.

Chloe sat up and leaned over before patting his arm. "Don't be all you-like and try to blame yourself. You are by no means accountable for my actions, and I'm pretty sure you were listening to my conversation with Lex, so do you have any other quick questions before the suits come in to interrogate me?"

Clark struggled for a moment, genuinely attempting to muster up an intelligent question but found himself fixated on one thing and one thing alone. "Engaged...married, to Lex?" He choked out the words like they tasted foul.

Chloe felt the encroaching blush and nodded hesitantly. "Maybe...yeah. I think so. Would you be willing to share maid of honor duties with Lois? You wouldn't have to do much, she's a pretty dominant personality." She tried to lighten the situation, but from the pained expression on his face she knew that she was not succeeding.

"Wow, uh, okay. I'll think about it. I just...wow, alright." She knew that there was no way in hell he would stand at the altar next to Lex, but figured it was the thought that counted. "Did you do any editing for him, was there anything else that you need to--" The door opened and Lex charged through it, followed in quick succession by three police officers.

"We understand that this is a trying time, Ms. Sullivan, but we would really like to hear exactly what happened." Out of the corner of her eye Chloe saw Clark quickly come to his feet and turn toward the door. She straightened herself and nodded curtly, ready for anything they were going to throw her way.

"Ask away."

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She couldn't fight it anymore. After months of squinting, splitting headaches from the glare off of the computer and blurred vision she finally had to admit the truth: she need glasses. Chloe hunched over her laptop, the new frames sliding down to the tip of her nose before she was able to catch them.

Her reflection surprised her, not only due to the slight alteration of her appearance but the exhaustion evident in every line of her face. She wasn't sure how long she could take the strain, the constant fear and paranoia, but it was aging her. The news was muted in the background, a relatively new fixture in her routine, and now that Superman was less myth and more of a mystery, she was guaranteed to catch a glimpse or a rumor concerning the enigmatic super hero.

She laughed off the plentiful assertions of one-night stands, jealousy and alcohol fueled bar brawls and the several women who staunchly claimed to be married to or seriously involved with the one and only superman. She occasionally bought these tabloids with so-called 'tearful confessions' of his jilted girlfriends and she couldn't help but wonder how Lana would have handled the situation if their roles were reversed.

It was strange how the only two serious romantic entanglements she had been involved in during her adult life were preceded by her former friend and current supermodel. It was difficult to fight the feelings of inadequacy that she hoped had died with her relationship with Lex, but they flared up like a herpes infection as soon as she and Clark became something of an item. She could imagine her jealousy, the creasing of her silken eyebrows as she shouted and waved a magazine through the air with conviction and sadness.

Irrationally, she wondered if that's what he secretly wanted...if he found jealousy to be a reflection of affection, but she knew that she was projecting. That was Lex, and she knew Clark too well to think that he shared the same reactions and emotions.

She could hardly believe that it had been more than a month since she had started her position at LuthorCorp and that Lex had yet to pay a timely visit to her place of employment. She wasn't sure what annoyed her more; the fact that she had been forced into a job she hadn't wanted or that she actually liked it. It combined her talents and her passion for investigating. She found it increasingly difficult to pretend as though she didn't like researching people, discovering the truth and piecing together the facts from fragments of evidence and it was perfect for her.

It was after midnight when he careened through her window. She always found herself profusely thankful for the location of her apartment, as was Clark. He was able to hop in and out of her windows without any fear of being observed due to the bleak brick building adjacent to her apartment building.

The loud thud of his body slamming into the carpet jarred her into consciousness and she found herself instinctively reaching for an impromptu form of weaponry before recognizing the stumbling shape.

"Clark?" It was as much a question as it was an exclamation.

He grunted in reply, trying to steady himself. "I got shot at!" Chloe flicked on the surrounding lights, shocked by his tattered attire. She blushed unnecessarily at the volume of revealed skin, but he didn't take notice.

"Are you…hurt?" It almost seemed like an idiotic question, but he didn't take it as such.

Clark shook his head emphatically, gasping for air and pressing a hand to his abdomen. "No…just surprised and, oh, naked." He noticed, and it was his turn to blush. She pulled him toward the couch and threw a blanket over his lap before investigating the blackened skin on his stomach.

"Ouch, what'd they hit you with, a bazooka?" She teased, but from the look on his face she was right on the money. "Oh god, why would they…were they government?" Her mind immediately went to Lex as Clark shook his head.

"No, civilians…how do you get a permit for something like that?"

She headed for the kitchen for warm water and soap. "Probably illegal, I'd guess." She tried to remain calm but felt the encroaching panic nonetheless. Yes, he was impervious to man made weaponry, but these people didn't know that. "Were they criminals you were trying to stop or…" He shook his head.

"No, they tried to snipe me out of a window…and in the street…some kid tried to hit me with a rock." The hurt was evident on the planes of his face and she felt an irrational desire to protect him, as though she could offer any sort of defense. She approached the couch with a bowl of soapy water and a rag.

"I guess this is just the start of things to come," he muttered, smiling slightly as she fiercely scrubbed his scorch marks.

Chloe looked up, "What do you mean?"

"I thought you…oh, wow, you haven't heard?" He marveled. "There's, well, there will be an announcement any day now offering half a million dollars to anyone who successfully captures and brings me to the nearest government agency. The official statement should be made tomorrow or the next day, but plenty of people have already gotten wind of it." He tried to smile but the expression looked broken and forced.

She squeezed his hand. "Lex?" He shrugged at the suggestion.

"Probably, but he can't act when the public opinion is on my side…this week, at least. The Department of Public Safety are the one's who are posting the reward, just far enough away from his so he won't be tainted by association." The level of bitterness in his tone was surprising.

"They can't just expect…that's ridiculous, they can't catch you, so why are they even bothering?" She wondered aloud. Clark responded nonetheless.

"I guess it's to be expected, now that I'm not just an urban legend anymore. I know that government frowns upon vigilante justice but I just didn't expect that I was going to have to duck gunfire every time I go out." Chloe dipped the rag into the water again, pulling off the front part of his outfit with ease and revealing his bare chest.

"God, I can't believe this. So to discourage vigilantism they are…encouraging others to be vigilantes? That's completely backwards and hypocritical." He sighed in agreement, raking his fingers through her hair as she worked diligently.

"I can clean myself up, Chloe." He said, amused.

She shrugged, "I know that. But…well, I like to. And you knew perfectly well that the second you crashed through my window I'd be here to nurse your wounds." She teased.

Clark smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Of course it is! And you love every minute of it. For a big bad superhero you can be pretty dependent." He frowned skeptically at the diagnosis but made no attempts to revise it.

"You missed a spot," He reached for her hand and guided it to his collar bone, feeling electricity pulse between them. Chloe hesitated before loosening her grip and following his lead.

"Sorry about that, how many missiles did they fire at you?" She asked, breathless.

"More than one...but less than five, it was kind of a blur." His eyes darkened as he recalled the experience and Chloe's heart ached. Her hand lingered o his chest, gently rubbing circles. There was a perceptible shift and she felt suddenly and irrationally embarrassed and started to pull away, only to be reigned in. They had only got so far as kissing, and the idea of taking it a step further terrified and intrigued her.

He cupped her cheek and Chloe leaned in, pressing her lips to his. Clark reclined back and pulled her on top of him without breaking the kiss. He felt her lips curve into a smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

He attempted to switch positions but she held her own, straddling his waist and pressing him down. She knew that if he wanted it bad enough he could overtake her in an instant but depended on his gentlemanliness, which worked its magic per usual. Chloe's breath hitched in her throat, heart and thoughts racing wildly. She could hardly believe it was happening and was equal parts exhilarated and terrified by their current position. He kissed her fiercely, hands rubbing her back.

The heat felt like a roaring fire washing over her, the fear and anticipation roiling in the pits of her stomach. It felt dangerous and new, as though nothing would ever be the same again. She wondered at the veracity of that feeling, whether everything would suddenly change, like all the movies said it would. She had never been one to take someone else's word at face value and she wasn't about to start now.

As Clark shifted position his elbow hit the remote control, and the television blared suddenly, Lex's booming voice filling the room. Chloe rolled her eyes, _of course._ Even televised Lex had to interrupt her.

"We're not going to take this! We, the American people, will not be bullied or blackmailed by terrorist organizations. We're not going to…" Clark's jaw clenched and the television exploded suddenly. He and Chloe gaped in shock as the TV smoldered before she regained her footing and began to laugh.

"What ever happened to that perfect control, Kent?" She asked, breathless. "You owe me a new TV." She seized his neck, kissing him hard, fear and anxiety momentarily dissipating as they boldly ventured into this strange new territory.

**Please review!!!**


	27. Happy Birthday

**Hope you guys like this newest installment and I really appreciated your reviews. I worked hard so I'd really appreciate some feedback!**

Chloe adjusted her new frames and typed diligently. Her inbox was finally nearing empty and she hadn't realized the time until her cell phone buzzed. "I'm feeling stood up, cuz." Lois chastised before her cousin even had the opportunity to greet her.

"Oh god, it's after seven?" The skeptical sigh on the other line confirmed what her watch and computer monitor had already informed her.

"I'm guessing you're still punched in at Evil Inc.?"

Chloe smiled and twirled a stray tendril of hair. "You've got it. I'm so sorry, I lost track of time. I'll be there in...okay, I won't be able to get there for a while. I hate to ask...but can you postpone til tomorrow?"

Lois sighed but agreed nonetheless. "You are shaping up to be a real flake in your old age. C'mon, it's tradition!" Chloe winced.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. This is the fifth year, right?" She could hardly believe that so much time had passed since they had begun their hackneyed yearly dinner dates.

Lois scoffed. "Sixth, actually. And this is the...second time you've forgot. You're four for six, that's barely a passing grade but I can forgive you, birthday girl." Chloe always told herself that she wasn't going to be one of those crotchety aging people who got hypersensitive about birthdays and the like, but it wasn't one of those promises that you could realistically hold yourself to.

"Yeah, the big 3-0, much like the big 2-0 except without the anticipation of being able to legally drink in a year. All I've got to look forward to is old age and infirm." Chloe said grimly and Lois laughed.

"Wow, you're chipper today. I'm surprised that you could spare the time from your busy schedule for little old me."

Chloe moved the mouse to keep the screensaver from activating. "Oh please, you know that I could never successfully avoid you."

"Yeah, of course I do, I just feel like whining because now you get paid three times as much as I do. How'd I get you on the big day, I felt pretty certain that Smallville was going to call dibs." Chloe always discounted how perceptive her cousin was.

"He knows the tradition and he's not one to step on that...how did you know?" She felt inexplicably guilty for concealing this important piece of information, but Lois wasn't one to hold it against her.

Chloe could almost see her cousin shrug. "I just know, call it my reporter's instinct. It's about freaking time, he's been moon-eyeing you for so long I was ready to just push you on top of him. I can't believe it took Kent this long to scrounge up the cajones to jump your bones." Chloe let out a burst of laughter at the unexpected and inappropriate comment.

"Well, that's not exactly how it happened..."

"Yeah, yeah, save the mushy-gushy details for your golden anniversary." Chloe could hear the smile in her voice. "And, well, I mean there were the 'signs.'" She said ominously.

"Signs?"

"Yeah, you know, the spring in your step, the sudden increase in beauty products, the more attentive eyebrow plucking, the lack of weather appropriate clothes." She rattled off the list as though it were written on a slip of paper.

"So...what do you think?" Chloe tried to think like an adult in her third decade, but still felt like a child seeking her big cousin's approval.

"I think that if there's anyone anywhere in the entire world who could possibly deserve someone as fantastic as you, it's that corn fed farm boy." She said, serious now. "I mean, not to harp on your sensibilities, we're not getting any younger and let's admit it...you've had a thing for him since puberty and if you haven't noticed he's barely glanced at another girl for years."

Chloe felt herself blush and stammered for a moment before composing herself. "Well, no I didn't...I just, I really think this could work. I mean, I think that this could be...well, we're not kids anymore." To state the obvious.

"You're telling me! I'm older than you are and am currently Prince Charmingless. Well, you've had a few frogs in your day and if you were looking for my stamp of approval, you've got it cuz." She anticipated Chloe's eagerness for approval to her cousin's amusement and consternation.

Chloe glanced at her computer screen in annoyance. "I've got to go finish the report I was working on, but can I see you tomorrow?" She picked up a nearby pencil and began to play with it in her fingers.

"Yeah, sure, same time, same place?"

Chloe smiled, taken back to noir films before chiding herself for her silly train of thought. "Yeah, sure..." She glanced up and saw Lex looming in the doorway. "I'll see you then, all right? I've got to go, I've got an annoying problem." She hung up and turned to face her visitor. It had bee nearly two moths sice she was instated in her nifty new position and he had yet to darken her doorstep with his unwelcome presence. A small part of her was disappointed but the major portion of her being hoped that he continued the trend.

"How do you like your new career?" He could always do that, just slip in, catching her completely unawares. She knew that his secret service agents must be lurking around, but it was rare that she actually saw them.

"Its fine, I'm working, please leave." She said through gritted teeth.

Lex crinkled an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Well, you don't sound very grateful. And to think, we've just passed Thanksgiving and still you've got a frown on." He truly lived to irritate her.

Chloe glanced up nonchalantly, cutting straight through him with her eyes. "Yes, you blackmailed me into a job I didn't want and now you're trying to stop me from doing said job just because you're bored. What, run out of countries to take over? Why don't you draft a new constitutional amendment to further impinge on the rights of US citizens and go on your merry way."

"Have you always been this bitter or is it a newly acquired trait?" He questioned thoughtfully.

Chloe scowled and turned away from her computer, realizing too late that Lex had accomplished his primary goal by getting to her. "It's always been buried somewhere beneath my fuzzy exterior, you just happen to bring it out in me. Why are you here? Where do you find all this time to pester me, shouldn't you be running the country?"

Lex quirked an eyebrow, "That seems to be a favorite question of yours. As I've mentioned before, I do have advisors that shoulder some of the burden. I caught the news this morning and it seems as though Superman had quite a night." She was shocked that her teeth didn't go straight through her lip at the heavy handed remark. He was usually subtler than that, at least in the beginning of their exchanges when he was calm and collected and could pretend as though he were in control.

Ah, so this was how it was going to be; baiting and threatening with a bit of innuendo thrown into the mix. A blush crept up the side of her cheek and she tried to be the better person, but it was impossible for her to simply turn the other cheek. "Yeah, imagine that. I wonder who stupidly pushed for a price on his head."

He shrugged and raised his hands in mock confusion. "Well, I just don't know. I guess there has been growing concern about a subhuman dispensing vigilante justice. I am simply an elected official who is at the mercy of my country."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You're not at the mercy of anyone. Every single person you've ever met has been at your mercy!"

"That's not entirely true; I've always been at your mercy, no matter how hard I may have tried to change that."

She smiled sardonically. "And you've tried awfully hard. Now quit with the small talk and tell me why you're here so you can leave."

"I just wanted to offer my congratulations on the success of your final piece at the Daily Planet. Did you hear that the paper sold out within two and a half hours?" The pride was evident in his tone.

"No, I didn't know and right now I don't care." That was a lie, of course, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how aware of it she was. "If that's all you have to say then please leave. There's the door, you should recognize it because you just came in it unannounced."

Lex stood in silence for a moment before composing himself. "Every time I think I finally have you figured out, you come right back and surprise me. Do you have anything else to say about this alleged _Superman_, did he call to inform you, or did you find out on your own?" She was torn between amusement at his petty and evident jealousy and the niggling desire to hurt him.

The former inclination was overruled by the latter. "No, actually, he dropped by a few nights ago and told me then."

His eyes widened perceptibly. "Oh, really? And what was it that he stopped by for?"

She considered ignoring him but the temptation was too great. "Well it can be a little distracting and disheartening when people accost you with various kinds of arsenal when you're trying to save a kitten from a tree."

Lex's eyebrows shot up to his forehead. "One can't help but wonder why a man, excuse me, not a man, a _thing _would decide to visit a friend when he has an outstanding warrant out for his arrest." When provoked Lex could always be counted on to make personal jabs, knowing that they were counterproductive but unable to stop himself nonetheless.

"And I can't help but wonder why you would dangle the possibility of Clark's arrest over my head in order to get me to do your bidding and then whirl around and go back on your word the moment I fulfill my end of the bargain." It was useless to let her temper get the best of her but it was impossible to resist.

"I didn't renege on my promise. Clark Kent is out of jail and out of trouble with the law, for now, at least. It's not my fault that Superman can't curb his hero complex and obey the law."

Chloe rolled her eyes, crossing her legs. "You're such a politician; I can't believe that I actually thought you wouldn't pull something like this." Sort of a double negative statement, but she was too angry to watch her grammar.

"I didn't 'pull' anything." He argued. "While you seem to derive a sense of meaning from protecting Clark, not even you in all of your denial you have to see that while it's a romantic notion, he cannot act as the Gestapo without some sort of consequence."

"We always have the same argument and it always yields the exact same results. You think he's some…some sort of psychotic monster and I think that you could never be half the man he is. I guess that we should just accept that we are at an impasse and go our merry ways." She was certain to be much merrier when he was out the door and out of her life…at least that's what she told herself.

He concealed the pain incurred by her statement admirably, but his tone sharpened nonetheless. "I don't work for myself, Chloe. This vigilante has been a cause of concern since he was all but a rumor, and don't try to pin this entirely on me. I know you like to see things to be black and white, I'm the villain and Clark's the hero. It's easier that way, isn't it? If all my motives were guided by greed and envy it would be easier to discount me or see me as the bad guy because it's so much simpler to brand a person as a villain than to admit that it's much more complicated than that. There is a gray area."

Chloe threw her hands up in the air, sighing. "I know that, you live there! You have rarely had to take responsibility for anything in your life; you've never once been forced to accept your accountability for your own actions. Honestly, I think the only reason you're so hung up on our…long lost relationship is because it was one of the few times that you were held liable for your actions."

He laughed and stepped forward, kicking the door closed. "You're right, this is déjà vu. How many times do I have to tell you that I love you before it sinks in?" The pencil in her hands cracked in two. He hadn't said that in a long time, and while she knew it all along…having him say it changed things. She couldn't explain how or why, but there was a perceptible change in the atmosphere.

"I don't doubt that…well, okay, maybe I do a little, or a lot, but, hmm, how can I say this?" She stuttered, anxious and caught off-guard before she worked herself back into a rhythm. "Get over it. It's over, and you've spent so much time holding onto our relationship that you never once tried to let go. You'd be a lot happier if you did." As though she would know the feeling, she spent so much time hating him that she forgot to stop loving him.

"I don't want to let go, and admit it, neither do you. I'll admit that I've had you investigated a few times…okay, on countless occasions, and you never even made an actual attempt at forming a meaningful relationship. A series of bad first dates, more than a few lonely weekends with Ben and Jerry?"

She gritted her teeth and winced at the sound. "And what about you? How many Marilyn Monroe wannabes have you _entertained_? How often do you play out our final scene? Reliving the past isn't healthy and I think a clean break would be the easiest way to handle it." Oh, liar, liar pants on fire, as though she hadn't done the exact same thing over and over again.

"I haven't been in a serious relationship since you. I can't even imagine spending my time with anyone…short of you." She tried to break eye contact but couldn't. "And I know about you, about how you live, how you've reacted and responded. So why are you even acting like you've moved on?" There was no venom in his tone this time, only curiosity.

"I have." It wasn't a lie, but it certainly wasn't the entire truth.

Lex rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and threw his hands up. "You tried, it's been almost seven years and here you still are! I know you'd like to think that you can forget about this, forget about us, but after all this time, do you think you can? That you even will?" She wished that his assertion had no weight or merit but that just wasn't true. It took all these years for her to even make an attempt at having a meaningful relationship.

"Yeah congratulations, you broke me! Why should I even try when you hurt me…so much? You had me followed, for how long? Did they see the thirty pounds I gained and lost? Did they tell you about the two weeks I stayed home from work, almost getting fired in the process? How I pushed sabotaged every friendship I had and isolated myself in a delightfully self-destructive way?" She asked, confrontational.

Lex tried to keep his composure, but spoke nonetheless. "I didn't…no, of course I didn't know…" She cut him off.

"Why do you think I switched apartments, departments, banks? I even stopped going to my favorite restaurant because it took me months to be able to go in there without bawling like a freaking idiot!

"You want to know how many men I've fumbled around with since you've been gone? There have been three. Three! That's an average of less than one every two years! And one-third of those liaisons have happened in the past four days!" She exclaimed.

It took less than a second for him to do the math and his eyes to darken and for her to realize the error in her admission. "Could you repeat that last line?" He asked slowly, but she knew that he had heard her perfectly.

"I shouldn't have said that, it was inappropriate. I'll get back to work now." She plopped into her chair and turned to face the computer only to be pulled back roughly by the shoulder.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know exactly what I meant by that but I shouldn't have said it, it was extremely tactless to talk to my _boss_ about my personal life." She hoped he'd leave well enough alone but knew better than to expect it.

"Well now that it's said you can't very well just take it back and I want to know exactly what you meant by that."

"There's really only one thing I could've meant." She attempted evasiveness to no avail.

"Forget that, of course I know what you mean, but...what? Who?" The aggression in his voice was only rivaled by the roiling jealousy that became clearer and clearer with every syllable.

"I just…yeah, I'm seeing someone." She pulled her fingers through her hair nervously before uncrossing her legs.

Lex stepped back, face becoming masklike. "Oh, and who's the lucky guy?" As if she would ever confirm his active suspicions. After all of his casual and bitter asides referring to Clark and her relationship he still didn't know. She should have realized it was all a smokescreen, that while he took pleasure in putting Clark down and mocking their friendship he didn't realize that they were together…or perhaps he just hoped that they weren't.

"This really isn't…it's none of your business." She rightly anticipated his outrage and wondered if, and how, he couldn't know. Lex was eager to have her followed and stalked by his goons when he was without grounded suspicions. It wasn't as though she and Clark were flaunting their relationship but any depth of investigation would validate the fact that they were seeing each other in a romantic capacity.

He didn't shout, but his jaw was set in anger and she wondered how much it would take to push him over the edge. "It's him, isn't it? Are you…did you get back together?" She was astonished at the tone of his voice and she couldn't understand what emotion was more prevalent; the hurt or the bitterness.

Chloe's eyebrows knit in confusion and she once again wished that her poker face was more convincing. "What…back together? We were never 'together' before." She said before her brain was able to process the obvious fact that this was a confirmation. She would have infinitely preferred to remain aloof but her own annoyance and innate desire to understand his motives overruled her common sense.

"What do you mean?" He asked, rough and frustrated.

She rotated her body toward him and spoke slowly, as though frightened of his reaction. "We were never together before this…damn, you know, my love life or usually lack-there-of is really none of your concern." She dropped the splintered pencil and poised her fingers over the keyboard.

Lex stared at her, looking more human than she had ever seen him before. "You weren't with him after you left?" She shook her head. "Then why…" He paused, wondering if he should reveal the extent of his knowledge. The unsurprised expression on Chloe's face convinced him to move forward. "Then why did you avoid him for so long?" She shouldn't have been startled, but she was. She knew that his sense of privacy and decency was deficient to say the least and yet she was still surprised by how invasive and thorough he could be.

She had long since surrendered the notion that she was capable of effectively deceiving Lex and found herself stumbling over the truth without even attempting to filter it. "I couldn't even look at him I was so embarrassed and ashamed. He was right…and every time I saw him I felt like I was lying."

One of the things that they had in common was their dogged approach to ferreting out the truth and Lex wasn't about to settle for less than full disclosure. "Why? What were you lying about?" He took an intimidating step forward as Chloe crossed her arms and stared daggers at him.

"Because I didn't tell him…I couldn't tell him that you knew."

"Why? Why not?" He berated furiously.

"I don't know!" She was frustrated and upset. She didn't want to wander down memory lane especially when she didn't understand the rationale behind her own actions. Despite her usually keen observations and inquisitiveness she could never trust her own motives whenever Lex was involved.

"Why couldn't you? Why didn't you?" He demanded, seizing her savagely by the shoulders without thought or remorse.

"I don't know." She repeated through gritted teeth. "I just…couldn't." She pushed his hands away but he remained unmoved, simply tightening his grip.

"You love me." It wasn't a question; it was merely a statement of fact.

Chloe ignored this, shaking her head despondently. "I…I didn't know what he would do, if he'd go after you. How he'd look at me, I didn't want him to think that I…that you and I were…" And even her garbled excuses weren't a denial.

She came to her feet and caught him off balance, freeing herself from his grasp. "I don't understand why we aren't together." He said, his voice softer and more genuine than she had heard in a long time. "I…am madly in love with you. You are the only woman I want to be with. Since I've been elected I've been living the life of a nun." He admitted.

She took an instinctive step back and nearly tripped over her chair. "Why nun? Why not priest, or are you not into gender specifics?"

He straightened his posture and sighed wearily. "I don't want to get into a debate about semantics with you. I've changed my mind, by the way." He tried and failed to bait her into inquiring as to what he changed his mind. He continued nonetheless, "I read Hannibal again and have found that my opinion has altered over the years."

She smiled humorlessly and shrugged. "I swear that every conversation we have seems to take the exact same path. Where's the originality?" She muttered and Lex ignored her.

"I found myself sympathizing with Clarice and Hannibal's plight more so after some life experience. Sometimes, despite everything else, love is all that matters." He reached for her wrists and she made no effort to move them. She was exhausted and confused. While her mind insisted that she quit dillydallying and move away, throw him out of her office if necessary, but she was so tired of fighting.

When he touched her she could still feel the spark, the all-consuming fire erupted under her skin the same as before. They had raw passion that hadn't fizzled over time but instead smoldered beneath the surface. She had always nursed the secret hope that it would go away, that she was just clinging to a Harlequin romance fantasy that was never going to live up to her memory, but she could still feel it. The passion was as raw and real as it had been in her early twenties, and her memory hadn't done it justice.

The warmth of his hands nearly knocked the air out of her lungs. Even all these years later it hadn't changed, her mind still went fuzzy whenever she put her guard down. "He knew what he wanted and she was the only one he could possibly spend his life with. She was the only one capable of challenging him and loving him for who he was." He pulled her close, ignoring her struggle as she tried to pull away.

"Let me get this straight—you're equating yourself to a cannibalistic psychopath?" She asked, attempting to inject humor into the situation. "Well, if the shoe fits…"

Lex shrugged, "Just go with it for the sake of the metaphor. Remember that you're also being compared to an ex-FBI agent on the lam."

"Yeah, one who was stupid enough to flit off to Europe with a demented serial killer who likes to eat people." She noted sardonically.

Lex shook his head, caressing the top of her hand with his fingertip. "Always playing devil's advocate."

She jerked her hand away. "Always playing the devil." Chloe gulped as he pressed his warm body against hers and she felt her knees buckle. "And where is Clark in this convoluted metaphor?" She asked, trying and failing to deflect his advances.

"He isn't." He said simply, leaning in and brushing his lips against hers.

**PLEASE REVIEW! This is one of my best chapters, in my opinion.**


	28. Shades of Gray

**Thank you guys so much for your reviews, they really keep me going! I hope you like this chapter, it was fun to write. The flashbacks are going to be less and less frequent and the story is going to mostly remain in the present :)**

He never quite sealed the kiss; instead he chose to tease and wait for her to lean forward. And oh did she want to, her mind was a blur and his arms were around her waist and she wanted nothing more than to turn off her brain and give into her physical impulses. She could feel the fire and it was all-consuming. She couldn't deny it and she had no great desire to try and do so.

Chloe had no idea how she did it, perhaps she had a little bit of superhero in her as well, but she pushed him away, forsaking his warm body and sidestepping past him and toward the door without a word. She didn't know why, or if, she expected to just walk away without facing any difficulties from Lex, but she tried nonetheless.

Chloe briskly walked passed three secret service agents before heading into the main foyer. The security guard at the front desk came to attention as the President stalked after a little blond woman and went as far as to salute before the pair headed out the front entrance.

"Slow down!" He insisted, but naturally this only induced her to walk even faster. "Why are you so difficult?"

Chloe scoffed, "I'm pretty sure that's a rhetoric question but I'll answer nonetheless. Because it's the way I've always been and always will be plus the little niggling fact that I've told you repeatedly that I want nothing to do with you and you insist on chasing after me anyway." He matched her stride and handed her the purse she left behind in her office.

"Well, you say no but when you kissed me it felt a lot like a _yes…_" She whirled around and bit her lip, knowing that he was just trying to get a rise out of her and that he was succeeding admirably.

"Well that's the same defense used by date rapists so I'm not sure it applies and you know that you're the one who initiated…it, if you can even call that a kiss." She saw his eyebrows shoot up to his forehead before she started walking away.

"Oh, you want to try again? Because I am more than up to the challenge." He was obnoxiously chipper and she wanted nothing more than to slap him silly.

"No, that is never happening and it doesn't count. You backed me into a corner, it was coercion. Plus there was no tongue." She added as an afterthought, desperate to escape from the truth.

"Let me get this straight, a kiss only counts if there is saliva involved?" He asked skeptically.

"Yes, otherwise it's just a…the kind of friendly, platonic, family member sort of greeting kiss." She was grasping for straws, but she wasn't about to surrender her denial without a fight.

"You kiss your family members like that? I usually just go with a courteous handshake…"

"You know what I mean, it was…don't ever do that again. Don't come after me or talk to me again and why is a limo driving alongside us?"

Lex waved his hand dismissively. "It's just my security personnel."

"Did they really need a limousine? Couldn't they just follow on foot?"

"They tend to anticipate my needs. There's also a helicopter following overhead, if you hadn't noticed." She hadn't, but that didn't mean she was going to admit it. "I don't know how you can expect me to just leave you alone when you've made it abundantly clear that you're still in love with me."

Chloe rolled her eyes but slowed her pace as they walked down the sidewalk, the wind chafing her exposed skin. She wished that she had the forethought to grab her jacket before sprinting out the door. "And how exactly did you glean this information? Is it from your skewed observations or the fact that I continually tell you to butt out of my life?" She asked with mock curiosity.

"None of the above, you can't even convincingly deny that you have feelings for me and I'm surprised that after our little interlude your office didn't catch on fire." He commented, slipping out of his jacket and draping it over her shoulders.

Chloe turned to face him, slowing to a stop. "Just…let me go. That's what I want, that's all I want. I don't trust you, and to be quite frank you scare the hell out of me."

"What is it about me that scares you so much? Could it be the fact that you're still in love with me…"

Chloe quickly interjected her laundry list of character defects, "I don't know what you're doing or, or what it is that you're planning or doing and I don't understand what your game plan is, not only just for the US but for the world at large. You're dangerous and unstable, accountable to no one with limited or nonexistent loyalties, and you're an unrepentant liar who's moral compass is shattered beyond repair."

Lex shrugged, "Well, no one's perfect."

"And I feel like…being with you would be giving up, surrendering any decency I have. I know you better than anyone, and I know what you're doing is…" She couldn't find a word to sum up her horror.

"What if you're wrong…and paranoid?" He challenged. "You have no proof or idea what the particulars are that you're talking about. What if I really just want my country to prosper—?"

"At the expense of others?" She interrupted. "You can't even in good conscience say that you're blameless, you're still twisting and spinning. You crossed the line years ago and there's no coming back. You knew that the day you decided that loyalty and morality and everything else that is good and just in the world is expendable. You've even taken a hit out of Clark because you can't, or won't, see why that is insane and inane."

"Oh, I'm insane? Coming from the most vocal advocate for a man in tights with a hero complex! Of course I push my own agenda, you do too!" He exclaimed, gesturing wildly to the surprise of the agents keenly watching him from all angles.

"You see, this is precisely the problem. You see every mistake and character flaw as equal to your own deficiencies. You rationalize and rationalize until your own sense of right and wrong is so twisted and corroded that you can only see in shades of gray."

Lex shook his head dismissively, eager to rebut. "When you make policies you have to establish another persona…"

"Oh please, you're IQ is borderline genius. You know that this stopped being a mask you could put on and take off years ago." He stood in stunned silence as she continued to walk briskly down the sidewalk.

He caught up to her quickly, not ready to concede. "That's all well and good and maybe you're right…but you could easily say the same about Clark. He's been playing the part of world police for so long that he is living and breathing his little fantasy…"

Chloe grunted; an incredibly masculine habit of hers that she couldn't control at times of extreme duress. "Stop bringing him into this. This has nothing whatsoever to do with Clark and I am sick and tired of having to defend his name every time you drag him into an argument. This is about you…and me." She stated unwillingly, she was well aware of the connotations of pairing them together like that.

"He has always been in the middle of this!"

"No, you have always tried to put him in the middle because since the beginning of time Clark has been an easy scapegoat for you."

Lex vehemently begged to differ. "It's not a scapegoat when he's actually to blame! Why else would you just let us fall apart like that? You can't honestly say that you don't still feel it."

Chloe rolled her eyes and wished that she could walk faster but her unwise choice of footwear prohibited that. "That's the point, he's not to blame, if you want to blame someone blame you! And of course I'm still…attracted to you, but that doesn't change anything, nothing at all." It was as close to an admission as she was ever going to get.

"Why not? It could easily change everything if you weren't so damned stubborn…" Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, if I'm stubborn, what are you?"

"I'm persistent…"

"Bordering on psychotic and obsessive," she interjected.

Lex sighed. "Why is it that you always interrupt me but if I try to do the same you bite my head off?"

Chloe considered this for a moment but thought of no satisfactory retort. "I don't know, maybe because I've always gotten away with it." She admitted, shrugging indifferently.

"Does Clark let you dominate…the conversation, I mean." She knew what she meant and told herself that she wasn't going to rise to the temptation, but found herself incapable of resisting.

"I guess you could say we share control, sometimes I have the upper hand and sometimes he claws his way to the top, but you can be sure that I don't make it easy for him," She knew that it was immature and that it would serve no logical purpose, but she still couldn't refrain. Lex gaped for a moment, "you asked for it."

"And I am deeply regretting it."

Chloe felt her anger turn inward as her righteous fury fizzled. She was burnt out and too old for this nonsense. She wasn't the same as she used to be in her carefree teens and early twenties when she felt invincible through osmosis, but with each passing year she felt her mortality mock her.

"Do you always walk the city streets in the middle of the night, how is it that there has yet to be an assassination attempt?" She asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"There have been attempts…several, in fact. I'm actually wearing a bulletproof vest right now and am constantly surrounded by talented members of my secret service who would willingly dive in front of a bullet for me." It sounded like he was boasting, but she didn't understand why.

They walked in silence for a moment, much to Chloe's consternation. He was incorrigible and she couldn't quite comprehend why she was so quick to go from enraged to silently walking alongside him as he escorted her home. "I'm going to ask you something but you can't read into it, I'm just…curious. It doesn't mean anything." She blurted out, sure that he would agree but knowing that it wasn't a promise he could realistically be expected to keep.

When he nodded she began, relatively sure that she would regret it. "Why did you…how, why did it take so long for you to come back?" She winced, anticipating the fallout.

He surprised her by contemplating this for a moment before reaching a response. "I was willing to wait, and I had things I wanted to accomplish before I saw you again."

"Becoming the Head of State?"

He laughed for a moment. "Among other things."

She felt a baffling jolt of disappointment as her apartment came into sight. "I need to ask you to…I'm perfectly serious, composed, you can see that, right?" He didn't acknowledge the question but she continued nonetheless. "Leave. There's nothing for you here anymore."

He looked her square in the eye and raised an eyebrow with tangible skepticism. "If that were true, would you still be walking with me?" He asked.

She refused to listen to his attempts at dissuasion. "I'm with Clark, and I want to be with him. If you…" She stopped herself before completing the clichéd statement. "Just let me go. I've said it before and I'll say it again if you need me to. You know me, or at least you did. You know that I mean it, that I want you to listen to me without trying to find an ulterior meaning or motive."

Lex nodded and closed his eyes and for a mad moment she thought he might do it, but she should have known better. "I know you, and I know that you want to mean it, but that doesn't make it true. Have a good night Chloe, and happy birthday." He turned to kiss her cheek before sidestepping and ducking into the waiting limo. She was so stunned that she made no attempt to pull away or storm off.

And there she stood, alone in front of her apartment building wearing Lex's jacket draped around her shoulders. She had two men who loved her, and she still felt completely alone.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**FLASHBACK**

It felt so wrong. And not in a good way, this was no 'it's so wrong but _so _right' situation, she felt dirty and twisted invading his privacy like this, but she figured he wouldn't mind…or at least that's what she told herself when she slinked herself down into his chair and turned on the monitor.

His office was pretty much off limits. He had never said so, but there was an aura of unwelcoming that gravitated around it and every fiber of her being was screaming at her to leave. She knew he had security cameras, but she also planned on informing him of her computer crashing, thus necessitating an emergency e-mail check from his home office. She called and left him a message, but even after all these precautions she still felt like Belle provoking the beast by wandering into the west wing.

_I trust him…I trust him…I trust him…_she repeated the mantra as she skipped around all of his security precautions artfully, surprised by the massive amount of security. _What's he hiding? _She squashed the errant thought and kept her imagination in check, refusing to allow her curiosity to guide her like it always did. If left to its devices, it would eat her up from the inside out and spread like a virus throughout her system and pull her toward the snooping that was so innate to her.

The door had been locked, as were many of the other private sectors in his mansion, but the skeleton key he had equipped her with fulfilled its purpose. As she positioned her hands on the keyboard she couldn't help but pull her eyes to her bare ring finger, feeling a nagging sensation in the pit of her stomach that terrified her. She was never much for aspiring toward being a Stepford wife, but she couldn't in good conscience use that excuse any longer. She knew perfectly well that Lex did not conform to specific gender roles and found her independence equal parts irritating and titillating, and would never try to wrestle it from her.

The realization had come as slow as a flood from a slow leak, but she couldn't deny it anymore. She wanted to marry him, and while this revelation was horrifying to her feminist sensibilities she found herself incapable of self-deception any longer. Chloe loved him more than she could ever express, and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She considered Clark's reaction for a mere moment before coming to the freeing realization that she hardly cared. He would have to get used to it, and she wasn't going to hide behind him any more.

She jumped as his personal phone buzzed near her elbow, guilt quickly rising up and falling as it rang the customary three rings.

The answering machine clicked on and the device hummed as the caller left a seemingly lengthy message. Chloe finally found her way onto the internet and passed all of his precautions, the blinking red light flashing in the corner of her eye. The compulsion to play the message began to pick at her, the curiosity working through her. She had called Lex; it easily could have been him returning her call. She had left her cell phone in the bedroom, she rationalized, and he probably just wanted to get in touch with her. She pressed play and instantly wished that she hadn't.

"Good morning, this is Dr. Randall. The lab work is done and you're suspicions were correct…there is an anomaly in the subject's blood sample." Chloe turned, gut twisting at the horrific familiarity of the voice. This man…how could Lex know the man who had invaded Clark's home, kidnapped her? His face flashed in her memory, hearing his howls of pain as he attacked her and she retaliated. Chloe's blood turned cold and her arms rigid as he continued to speak, the fear and uncertainty broiling deep inside of her.

The messenger coughed, "it proved highly allergic to the, ahem, _suggested_ substance but in order to get a more definitive prognosis we will need the subject. We've decided that an autopsy is preferable, but please call back for all the details and the comprehensive report. You are going to make history, Mr. Luthor." He stated with absolute certainty.

It took a full minute for Chloe to blink, computer disregarded. She leaned over, numb and in disbelief, and replayed the message before rewinding it again and listening once more. It was on the third listen when the tears started to fall.

**Tell me what you think! I spent a lot of time and I hope you guys enjoyed it!**


	29. The Fallout

**MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you all have a fantastic holiday. The story's heating up a bit more and I hope everyone likes the way I'm taking it. Please tell me what you think.**

Chloe was addicted. After years of casual and recreational use she could no longer deny that she had a problem. She had conquered her caffeine dependence admirably, but knew that this would be even harder than that. She wanted to stop, needed to quit obsessing and start thinking with her head on straight, but it was much easier said than done. It kept her up at night, terrified her down to her core. Every time Clark went out to save the world and whatnot, Chloe found herself immovably transfixed to the television.

What started out as an innocent desire to stay caught up in the news and world events quickly turned to obsession after news program after news program dedicated more and more time to the enigmatic figure that was Superman. Hero or villain? Friend or foe? Boxers or briefs? All very titillating, but the media was growing a typical mean streak that left Chloe incapable of rational thought, let alone mustering up a good night's sleep.

She was terrified that she would wake up one morning to find that Superman had been disgraced and captured, his identity revealed and his court date set. She tried her best to conceal these struggles from Clark, but it wasn't easy to hide when her concerns were plastered across her face.

She knew he was perturbed, scared that she was in some sort of danger or that she was sick. He forced her to go to the doctor's and even after she came back with a clean bill of health he wasn't convinced. He knew something was very wrong with her and was just too gentlemanly to insist that she divulge the reason behind her sudden personality alteration. He pretended that he didn't notice the dark circles under her eyes but it was easy to discount that symptom seeing as every time he spent the night with her she slept like a baby. How could he know that she had difficulty even blinking when he was out and about saving humanity?

She clung to him, never voicing her fears or her trespasses. Their relationship was a distraction to his 'work' and she could tell that it was affecting him. The very thought of something happening to him because his guard was down due to her own stupidity scared the ever living daylights out of her. She was ashamed and embarrassed and incapable of telling him.

Chloe imagined the look on his face if she told him and it made her wince. What would he do? What would he say? He'd leave, she felt absolutely sure. He'd realize how stupid he was to emotionally and physically connect himself to someone so wholly damaged. When they were merely friends there was a barrier, a safe area of space where she could bury her uncertainties and since he had no right to have a personal stake in her love life, or lack thereof, the ground laid undisturbed for a good long while.

No more. The had been trampling over it and the ghost of relationship's past had come back to haunt her, and she deserved it. She had been playing with fire and had spontaneously combusted; it served her right for messing with things she had no right to mess with. But Clark didn't deserve this, she told herself, he deserved the option of escaping from her relatively unscathed. She knew this and yet she couldn't bring herself to tell him. Was it cowardice, was the idea of forsaking something so wonderful worth her self-serving antics? Or was it something else entirely?

The guilt didn't help either. She was consumed by raw self-hatred and disgust, frowning at her own despicable weakness every time she remembered her rendezvous with Lex all those weeks before. She hadn't seen him since, and that suited her just fine...or at least that's what she told herself. She forbade herself from feeling something that felt all too much like regret and disappointment when he didn't show up. _I'm a whore, _her subconscious suggested and she wasn't about to argue with that.

It would have been too easy to just tell Clark, to admit to the near miss and see if they could move forward, and instead she chose the cowardly method of trying and failing to forget that it happened. This selective amnesia wasn't working out very well.

As she stared, eagle-eyed, toward the television screen. She felt scatterbrained, disoriented and overwhelmingly guilty the majority of the time and knew that he had to have realized it. Clark wasn't one to push and prod like Lex, he was far less abrasive and infinitely more patient in matters such as this. Chloe considered the best course for evasive action but surrendered her efforts almost immediately.

She felt horrible, like a disgusting liar who betrayed the best man she knew by lying through omission. Her feelings and emotions were in such a constant flux that she wasn't even sure if what she was experiencing was real of not. The intense passion she felt for Lex rivaled her contented love for Clark, and she had no idea which way to turn. The incessant thought that perhaps Clark would be better off without her and her silliness and the ridiculous amounts of baggage she brought to their relationship.

Could they just go back to being...friends? Did she even want that? It really didn't matter in the end, all that mattered was what he wanted. Oh god, indecisiveness was not a usual trait of hers, but she was driving herself absolutely insane with it. She didn't know why she found it so difficult to divulge the truth to him, she couldn't tell if the shame or the fear was more prevalent; the shame or the fear.

Clark surprised her by coming through her front door, adorned in an actual honest-to-god suit and glasses with a paper bag tucked under his arm. He looked so comical in this completely and outrageously normal getup that she had to exert a strenuous effort to keep from laughing. She moved to turn off the brand spanking new television, courtesy of Clark, and admired his outfit. She tried to slip back into her persona but it was much like trying to wedge herself into a dress two sizes too small. "Very sharp. Going to get a loan or something?" His business façade crumbled and his face cracked wide open into a contagious grin.

"Very clever, Chlo. I'm trying to look more professional to distance the gap between…well, my alter ego and myself." He said, frowning at hisword choice.

Chloe smiled a broken smile that hurt his heart. He had no idea what was wrong with her, but it was clear that something was different. Perhaps he was blind or unwilling to see, but he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that something was incredibly and undeniably wrong.

"Alter ego? That sounds so…evil villainy." She always breathed a sigh of relief whenever he resurfaced after a long night of crime fighting.

"I brought takeout." He waved the paper bag obligatorily and disappeared from sight, reappearing in the kitchen with a full blown Chinese buffet prepared on the table.

Chloe walked at human pace toward the kitchen. "Thanks, you're a lifesaver." She couldn't explain the overpowering guilt and confusion that had consumed her since the practically-a-kiss occurred and even she didn't know why she hadn't offered full disclosure to Clark yet.

He pulled out a chair for her and the moment she blinked a plate and handful of silverware materialized on the table before them.

"No problem, I know you've been up late…for a few weeks, I thought this might help. We haven't…talked much lately; I thought that it'd be nice to catch up." Ah, so this was interrogation food. She could have mustered up a more enthusiastic response but she didn't feel up to it and instead shoveled a forkful of eggroll into her mouth and nodded numbly.

She wondered if she was losing 'it' for a mere moment before realizing the root of her indifferent reaction; she honestly couldn't bring herself to muster up a lie, and she didn't want to. _I'm getting too old for this shit._ She'd had enough lies and deceptions to last her a lifetime and many of those untruths were rooted in her friendship with Clark. Since she was a teenager she felt the overpowering need to hide the truth and protect him from anyone who may not have his best interests at heart. If she couldn't be honest to Clark, then what the hell was wrong with her?

Sometimes Chloe felt as though she was sabotaging her own life, disconnecting herself from those she loved and cared about through lies of omission and half-truths. Perhaps it was because it had become a way of life, protecting herself and Clark's interests by concealing the truth and distorting the facts.

She was so confused and couldn't trust her own faulty judgment and had to settle for being led by logic, a tool that had yet to disappoint her. If she and Clark were going to have a successful relationship, she would have to offer full disclosure.

"I'll save you the trouble of the leading questions, I know I've been…off." she looked at his face and quickly added, "to say the least."

He nodded and reached for the carton of fried rice. "I…have some things I need to tell you." She felt a jolt in her stomach as the words spilled out and she wondered if he had laced the general tsao's chicken with truth serum. "And I'd really like it if you didn't say anything…at least until I'm done." She shook off her light jacket and draped it over the back of her seat as a blush crept up her neck.

He pantomimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key, continuing to eat warily. If she were herself she would find it funny that he was treating her like a skittish deer, afraid to scare her off. But she didn't have much a sense of humor at the moment.

"I just…and I don't know why I didn't tell you when it happened, I guess I was weirded out…okay, no, that's a lie." She admitted. "Well, I was really…it was weird and strange but that's not why I didn't say anything." She threw the emergency brake on to stop herself from backtracking at warp speed.

"I just don't know how…okay, I know how I feel. I still have…feelings for Lex." She blurted it out and instantly averted Clark's eyes, cowardice and shame overwhelming her. He dropped his fork.

"I don't want to…I can't be with him and I am so…I want to be with you, and not like some sort of back up or, or consolation prize I _really _want to be with you, but I need to tell you that what I felt…feel for Lex isn't gone." For someone so articulate on paper, the stress and intense fear of losing him had turned her into a stuttering dolt who tripped over her own words.

"It didn't just disappear or relocate or go into exile and I completely understand it if you don't want to settle for this." She glanced up quickly but dropped her gaze when she saw the hurt sparkling clearly in his eyes.

"And to make a long story short…er, I guess, since this has already been, well…he sort of kissed me." _Sort of? _God, she felt like a petulant child, but that was her own weakness. She wasn't going to inflict her excuses onto him in a selfish effort to assuage her guilt.

"Well, he came to my office and, and talked and, well, I guess it could count as kissing but it was under three seconds and there was no tongue…okay, I'm rationalizing and you deserve better than me trying to shift the blame completely on him when I'm culpable too." There was a resonating silence that lasted for a painful forty-eight seconds as Clark gripped the edge of the table, hand quivering madly. He felt his control slip out from under him like a slicked up bar of soap and it took every ounce of his self-control to reign it in, but it was like trying to restrain a pack of wild dogs with a piece of twine.

Clark removed his glasses and wiped his eyes, slumping over. He could feel the sadness and rage vying for domination inside of him. "Do you love him?" He didn't want to hear it, but he already knew. He had known for a long time.

She opened and closed her mouth and started to shake her head before reason and honesty overpowered her. "Yes."

Clark choked out a sob before his hand was able to fully muffle the sound. "Do you love me?"

There was no pause this time. "Yes."

"When did…?" His voice broke and his knuckles turned white as his grasp tightened and a piece of her table crumbled into dust.

"My birthday and I…" He raised his hand stiffly and came to his feet, disregarding the full plate in front of him and resisting the overwhelming temptation to throw it against the wall and rip the table to shreds.

"I need…to go." He said slowly, walking toward her window before disappearing out it, attempt at being human forgotten. Chloe collapsed into desperate and painful sobs the moment that he was gone, burying her face in her arms and crying until she was empty.

She tried to assess her emotions, consider whether all hope was lost for her and Clark and contemplate how it was that she felt about that. A part of her hoped to find some clarity and freedom after the fallout, to realize that all along she and Clark would have been better off as friends, but all she felt was complete and total loss.

She couldn't hide behind her own excuses any longer; they were obsolete in the long run. In a charmingly self-destructive manner she could only assess the depth and longevity of their relationship after it had, in all likelihood, terminated. She only had herself to blame, who would want a woman who loved another man and was already classified as damaged goods in the first place?

Chloe was averse to taking the easy way out and excusing her own behavior and her unwillingness to let herself off the hook made it all the more difficult to reconcile herself with the truth.

If he wanted out, she had to let him. Chloe wasn't going to be the one to hold him back, selfishly keeping him from the greatness she knew that he was destined to have. She was certain of her ability to convince him and she had to give it up, not allow herself to exert her full power. And if she did it would only be to Clark's detriment.

It took nearly ten minutes for her to compose herself enough to clear the table, haphazardly stashing the leftovers in the refrigerator. The television blared in the background and for once Superman was not the topic of discussion, which Chloe found to be equal parts relieving and frustrating.

It was after midnight when the TV finally went off and Chloe collapsed onto her bed, crying herself to sleep. The irony struck her funny; that the only other man she had ever cried herself to sleep over before was directly linked to her current state of distress.

Maybe Chloe had missed her calling. Perhaps she would be better off as a nun, seeing as her relationships either went nowhere or ended in Disasterland, where she was likely to be elected mayor at any given time. But even now she couldn't regret it, any of it. Some people were just better off alone, but she never considered herself to be amongst their numbers. But maybe that's where she belonged, because she sure as hell wasn't very successful at being in love, the very few times she was.

A car alarm sounded in the distance, yanking her out of a fitful sleep and into bleak reality. She didn't notice when the bed sank and the springs creaked but fully came to when she felt a hand resting on the small of her back.

Chloe rolled over and looked up to see Clark sitting beside her, the confliction evident in the planes of his face even in the darkness. "You're back?" She wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not.

"I didn't want to wake you." The agitation wasn't gone, but there was a new calm that kept it in check.

"Too late, where'd you go?" She forced a yawn to excuse the weakness in her voice and she hoped that he couldn't see her red and blotchy face or the tearstained pillow.

He paused for a moment and leaned back, shuffling under the blankets. "I just had to think." She reached for his hand but he pulled away hesitantly. She tried to take the action in stride and not analyze it, as she was prone to do, but found little to no success. Chloe was surprised by the strength of her emotions and the power of her regret, she just wanted to hold him. Even if he left in the morning and never touched her again for as long as she lived, all she wanted was to feel him in her arms one last time.

"What's the consensus?" She asked unwillingly. She didn't want to know. She didn't want to lose him so definitely, wanted to postpone the inevitable but didn't want to hold him back.

The silence was worse than anything he could have said, and while she couldn't make out his features in the poor lighting she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was hurt and confused. It caused her physical pain to have him so close and yet so out of reach, but she wouldn't make this harder for him. She resisted the Lana impulse, to make herself feel better by consoling him when the truth was it was all her fault and the only purpose it would serve was to abate her guilty conscience. She could rationalize the hell of it, but that was the naked truth.

"I know I told you I didn't need...or want to know about everything, but I changed my mind," he whispered, taking her hand after all. She was shocked into silence, but nodded fervently. "I need to know what we're dealing with." She felt a strange thrill at the 'we' and found herself irrationally hoping that there was some chance...but she didn't hesitate.

"I'll tell you everything."

**I know no one wants to read a long A/N, but I just wanted to tell the readers something if you are interested. When I started writing this chapter I really had no idea as to how it was going to progress, and for a little while I even entertained the thought that this would spell out the end of the Clark/Chloe relationship, but the story took me where it did and I'm pretty surprised it took me here. Hope you guys enjoyed, tell me what you think.**


	30. Gone for Good

**Thanks for your feedback! I wrote this chapter like three months ago so I am so glad to finally be able to put it up. Hope you enjoy!**

**FLASHBACK JJ**

Her fingers fumbled across the keyboard as she carelessly wiped the tears from her eyes. She got around Lex's security precautions like they were child's play, certain that a man of his caliber must have some sort of alarm that she was bound to trip, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

Chloe hacked into his ghost drive seamlessly, scouring through the files in silent desperation. She wanted him to be innocent, she wanted it all to be a mistake, but the largely logical part of her knew that the likelihood of that was slim to none at best.

She clicked randomly and to put an end to all doubt Clark's face filled the screen and Chloe felt her stomach drop to her toes. She told herself that all she wanted was absolute proof, but the pathetic truth of the matter was that she wanted to be proven wrong, she wanted to be refuted. There was no worse time to be right, no emptier victory.

She scrolled down and felt a flash of embarrassment at the depth of his report, which stopped short of a webcam of his latest physical. It stated every romantic entanglement, Lana's name popping in and out of it periodically, almost as frequently as his. It stated matter-of-factly the age when he lost his virginity, to whom he lost it and the only gray area surprised her. She found her name wedged in the report with a bolded question mark alongside it.

She flushed in anger when she reached a section listing his prospective abilities, his white cell count, antibodies as well as his projected lifespan. The file was so extensive it knew things that Chloe was never aware of.

Her strength deteriorated and she dissolved into pathetic and frantic tears when she came to his status: slated for termination. There was no denying the connotations, the absolute certainty. The words left no wiggle room and the part of her that so very much wanted it all to be false was finding itself contradicted.

She dissolved into hysterics and found herself incapable of intelligent thought or action. She found herself instinctively printing the report out, folding it carelessly and slipping it into her pocket. In anger she tried to delete it, but found even her innumerable talents were no match for the file's protection.

Chloe skipped around the allegedly 'hidden' records and felt increasingly helpless and enraged with each confirmation. The profile of her captor was triple encrypted but that did little to deter her.

A _scientist_, the unprofessional monkey was a scientist for cripes sake. Dr. Randall was an outside hire in a poor attempt to distance him from LuthorCorp, which was a wise decision indeed. Arrested for questionable ethics but avoided conviction by ratting out an employer reaching notoriety in the underground black market for testing on humans, he should have lost his license but always found some eccentric to bail him out. Lex was his saving grace in this latest instance, saving the good doctor from losing his medical practice entirely. It seemed as though he mostly operated in the black market where the money was, seeing as there was no possibility of any legitimate hospital or organization hiring him.

She seriously considered running away, just leaving the mansion behind and never speaking to him again, perhaps even siccing Clark on him. If it was any other man, any other person for that matter, it would be the preferable course of action. If her heart didn't crack every moment she thought about his betrayal, his lies, his evil plans perhaps she could leave, sight unseen and rely on her guard dog to protect her. But she couldn't.

There was a loud, screaming, growing part of her that still hoped it was all a misunderstanding. The Lana-esque portion of her brain wanted to believe that this could all be explained away in some satisfactory manner, that he could have a reason to do this, that maybe she was mistaken. She could have slapped herself the moment the errant thought crossed her mind.

How stupid was she? Chloe was a fool for no one…she hadn't been 'silly' over a boy since puberty and she wasn't going to start now. She thought of kissing him, touching him, loving him and it turned her stomach. It wasn't the actions themselves, but instead how she could not see through the façade, how even when thinking back on their time together she still got goosebumps. How could he possibly and persistantly lie to her for so long? Of course he would deny that he was 'lying' but omitting key information was just the same if not worse. This wasn't a small slip, a fib that she could overlook. There was no human way that she could live out her life with him knowing that he was willing to do this. She never fully grasped the depth of his hatred and obsession until the facts were laid out before her, irrefutable.

The minutes bled into hours and her body was numb to its needs, no hunger or thirst overtook her when she was in the throes of an emotional breakdown. When Lex walked through that door she was more composed that she would have ever thought possible. She was sitting erect, eyes focused and only slightly bleary, her hair in an unmanageable state of disarray.

He smiled and stepped forward, as though her location was unsurprising. "I received your message. You could've contacted one of my men to repair your laptop." He said, clearly puzzled.

"I got a message, too." Her voice cracked and the tears were ready to spring as she leaned over his desk and pressed play, barely able to keep her hand steady. He sprinted to turn it off the instant her captor spoke, but it was too late, and he knew it.

Lex reached for her and she flinched, rising to her feet and turning from him. It couldn't have hurt worse if she had clocked him in the jaw. "Chloe, I…" She felt an incessant and pulsing rage flicker in her system, triggered by his pacifying tone. He still thought there was something…some slight chance of fixing this colossal mess, and he couldn't have been more wrong.

"Don't touch me." She warned, hating the weakness in her voice, the exhaustion overpowering her anger easily.

"It's…not what it sounds like. This must be some sort of mistake." Ha, yeah, of course it was. The idiot wasn't supposed to call him at his home office where it would be possible for her to overhear. An amateur mistake, if she were capable of rational emotion she would have been surprised by the ineptitude of his trained monkey.

She concentrated all of her energy on not dissolving into hysterics, her mouth turning and doing that stupid thing it always did when she was holding back tears. "Tell me I'm wrong, then. Tell me you didn't hire some goons to take Clark out like...some kind of animal." She choked out a pathetic sound and clasped her hand over her mouth to stop any further noises. "Tell me you didn't know exactly where I was that night, and why I was late. Tell me this is some massive conspiracy, that…that somehow all of this isn't true. C'mon, just lie some more. What's another one in the long run?" She asked, extending her arms and shoving him square on the chest. In surprise he jerked backward, losing his footing and stumbling. He reached for her hands and she pulled away, crossing her arms against her chest and fighting the inevitable flood of tears and sadness.

He didn't know what to do. She was clearly averse to being in close proximity to him and he had no idea how to even attempt to start explaining himself. In desperation, Lex turned and ripped the answering machine out of the wall; tossing it like a football against the soundproof door and watching it shatter like a toy. "I didn't…I wanted to know. You knew! You knew? How could you…how…I had to know!" He insisted.

She wanted to understand, to find some sort of good reason for what he had done. Maybe...there was an explanation. But from the look on his face she had to reconcile herself to the fact that there was no rationale that would make the pain dissipate. He looked like a caged animal, desperate to escape from his prison.

"Had to know what?" She was hysterical and incapable of reigning herself in. "Had to follow Clark around, how does that qualify as a need? I just…why? I want to know why…could you do this to him? No, wait, you don't give a damn about him, how could you do this to me?" She cringed slightly at the unintentional pleading in her voice. She didn't understand her own feelings, her own reaction. Why did she want to be deceived so badly? This wasn't her, this wasn't her at all.

"To you? I did this _for _you! The man is a complete and raving lunatic, Chloe. He is unpredictable and not even human. I didn't know…I had to find out what he was." He tried to focus on remaining calm, on convincing her, but the rage and hatred coursed through his veins so powerfully that he couldn't ignore it. Clark, it was always Clark.

She shook her head, taking a brash step forward. He was close enough to touch, only a few electric inches away, but Chloe felt no desire to do so unless she was permitted to slap him. "You completely…the man said AUTOPSY, Lex! He said it like it was nothing, like it was agreed upon, like, like dissecting him was the next logical step." A deadly calm overtook the hysterical edge in her voice and he recognized it instantly.

"You don't understand, it's just…" He tried to shake it off and recover, but found himself incapable of conjuring up that political diplomacy that had saved him so frequently. So he did what he knew and changed tacks. "And you knew? You knew all along what he is and you never even…" His voice trailed off.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I never told my psychotic boyfriend who hates my best friend that he happens to be a little…different and you…you just…you were going to kill him?" Her voice cracked. "I just…how? Why? Why did you…how could you…how could you do this to ME?" She repeated.

"I've already said that this has nothing to do with you…"

"Nothing to do with me? Really, you've got to be kidding me!" She was hysterical and beyond the point of no return. "You BETRAYED me, you broke my trust and you went behind my back and you got me kidnapped and you…"

"Wait, I had nothing to do with the abduction. That was a mistake, and I…" She cut him off savagely.

"And you what? You told your ghoulish little goons to let your...dumb-ass whore go free so you could continue to hunt down Clark?" She exclaimed, gesturing wildly. Something clicked, something that she should have realized a long time ago. "My keys...there was no sign of forced entry. You stole my keys?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Lex gaped for a moment, trying and failing to speak diplomatically. "I...yes. I had someone copy them." He admitted when it became clear that there was no positive spin for that. "But you have to know that I had nothing at all to do with that whole mess, and the one's responsible have been penalized and will continue to be punished."

Chloe took his admission in stride, though she could feel something crack inside of her. "Did I get in the way, is that why they didn't take him the first time they attacked? Is that why he's still alive?"

"You say it like I hired a gunman; I didn't want to have…" But she wasn't going to listen to his excuses any more.

"Does SLATED FOR TERMINATION ring any bells?" She roared, and this at least stunned him, albeit temporarily. "I guess I was just a means to an end then, right? Get close to me, get near to Clark…"

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous." He interrupted, slightly recovered from her previous attack and very insulted by her latest assertion. "I had no pressing interest in him until I met you. How long have you known what he is?" The latent anger pulsed in his eyes and even in her state of distraction she recognized it.

"None of your damn business." She snarled.

He ignored this. "And they weren't supposed to k…_hurt _Clark." He amended. "They were just trying to get a viable blood sample when they realized that he had contacted someone and were forced to retreat. They told me that they hid him somewhere…how did you find him?" All the pieces were falling into place as her world collapsed around her.

"Why did it take so long, then? And what the hell was your Dr. Randall doing in Clark's farm?" Even in shock and distress she was a reporter through and through. When she was freed of her desire to find some sort of plausible excuse, she could finally find some focus. Lex didn't realize that this meant she was done. There was no way back, no possible source of recourse. Chloe needed to get all the information she could before it was too late. And it was going to be too late in a matter of moments.

He paused and she knew that he was considering lying but took one glance at her face and decided to tell the truth. "The lab equipment wasn't advanced enough to process the sample. The good doctor was desperate to find some information and went to the farm without properly preparing. As if he would just have an envelope marked 'clues to what I am' tucked away in his bureau? How the hell he ever got his doctorate is beyond me." As was why he hired him.

"What was the plan? Make him disappear off the face of the planet and hope I'm too busy looking at you with goo-goo eyes to notice? I am such a moron, a complete idiot. How could I ever trust someone like you?" She wiped the burgeoning tears from her eyes impatiently and dodged Lex's hand as he reached for her.

"No, no just…stop saying ridiculous things like that. He…he's not human, and he's a danger to us all! What's to stop him from robbing a bank, killing people? You say that he wouldn't, won't, but why shouldn't he? He has absolutely no accountability…and you vouching for him, frankly, doesn't mean anything!"

She gaped at him for a moment. "You'd have him killed just for that? Don't try to deny it anymore, I know what the plan was, I know what you wanted! Oh god, I can't believe this is happening…I can't believe…" She muttered, running her fingers through her hair desperately as she paced, anxious and in a state of shock.

"How long have you known?" And that rage was there, the underlying and all encompassing ire was bubbling below the service, in was in his eyes and it lined every wrinkle in his face. She wondered why she never saw it this way before. He didn't just have a temper…it was like a demon inside of him. Relentless and invincible, far more dangerous than Clark ever was or ever could be.

There was an unspeakable power that emanated from him, a power that had been, thus far, on her side, fighting her battles and loving her. She had never quite grasped what it meant for Clark to have Lex as an enemy, and it had been childish and idealistic for her to expect the burned bridges to miraculously regenerate from the ashes and rise like Lazarus. There was something fearless and unstoppable that lay caged and tamed inside of Lex, and only now did she begin to wonder exactly what it would take for the beast to slip the leash.

Bygones were never going to be bygones, despite Clark's best efforts to convince her otherwise Lex had never surrendered the animosity…and to a large degree, neither had Clark. "Since I was seventeen," she replied, voice raw and hoarse.

Anyone else would have considered the expression that crossed his face to be unfathomable, but she could see the subtle indicators of the pure and unadulterated rage working its way through his system. The tightening of the jaw, the slight clenching of his first and the squaring of his shoulders all pointed to slight annoyance and mild discomfort for a good poker player, but he was exemplary. These trivial markers meant so much more for Lex.

"You knew about this since high school." It wasn't really a question.

She answered nonetheless, "Yes."

"Do you know where he comes from? What he is?" She surprised both herself and him by nodding bleakly. "Why do you seem to have the utmost confidence in his _morality_?" And it was back again, the all-encompassing jealousy and hatred that she had always dismissed as obnoxious but understandable over-protectiveness.

"I trust him," Her mind-to-mouth filter seemed to be malfunctioning.

"And me, what about me?" He asked, persistent and almost pleading. She was the one woman in the entire world who could bring him to his knees and she couldn't appreciate it.

"I don't trust you as far as I can throw you. I can't…I won't." She said decidedly, ignoring her increasingly weakened knees and her increasingly queasy stomach. She wondered how she was going to do this, how she could be without him after having Lex for so long. It hurt just to think about, and her own frailty annoyed her.

"I love you, and I know you love me. You can't leave, you can't…I love you so much." The words were little arrows, pricking and agitating but doing nothing to heal the breach. He must have known that there was no chance at salvation, but he wasn't about to surrender the best part of his life so quickly. He reached for her hand and held it for a fleeting moment, taking in its warmth and delicacy for a fleeting moment until she yanked it away.

He had no idea how lucky he was; how fortunate it was that she was in such a state of shock that she wasn't able to fully formulate the depth of her emotions.

"Don't just…don't." She tried to snarl but only succeeded in pleading. "Don't call, don't write, don't send flowers, and definitely don't send jewelry. Just…don't." She turned to leave, body almost weightless in her confusion and sadness.

"I'll do anything! Turn around come back, don't leave me." He insisted, stepping forward brusquely and grabbing her by the elbow. There was no gentleness or awareness, just sheer desperation.

She whirled around and shoved him to no avail, he was ready for it this time, and it only made him tighten his grasp. "Let go of me right now." He snatched her other arm and pulled her toward him, ignoring her struggle.

"No, I won't. I'm…I'll fire Randall, burn the files, eradicate them completely from existence. I'll stick him with a confidentiality agreement, nothing will happen. It can go back to normal again, everything will be fine." He insisted, the anxiety clouding his face.

She shook her head and dropped her hands. "Yes, you will back off; make a bonfire out of those files, fire _Dr._ Randall all you want. You will leave Clark alone and completely forget his existence, as well as mine." He opened his mouth to object and she cut him off. "You're right, you will clear your ghost drives, zip drives and whatever the hell else you've been hiding from me. I don't care how you do it, the specifics don't matter just get it done.

"If Clark trips on the sidewalk or a US helicopter rams into him or another psychotic moron chases after him with a needle full of poison I will find out. And I'll kill you, I don't care how. I swear to God, I will." And there was no indication of a bluff in her eyes though the likelihood of such a feat was slim to none.

He gaped at her, reflexively tightening his grip on her wrists as she stared him down. "And if you don't let go of me right I'm going to react in an incredibly unpleasant manner."

He stepped back and relented reluctantly, jaw clenched and eyes on fire. "You pick him? Why did I think you would ever…it's always been Clark, hasn't it?" The venom was clear and bitter. "Why did you ever get involved with me if you just...you always wanted him? Was I just a place holder?" He asked, anger, bitterness and sadness vying for domination in his tone.

She was about to crack, she couldn't hold herself in one piece for much longer but his words forced her to retaliate. "You are completely and entirely delusional. I loved YOU; I wanted to be with YOU I was even going to marry YOU!" She shouted, gesturing wildly. His eyes widened but he made no effort to cut through. "I was madly and passionately in love with you, I was...I was willing to give up so much because...I wanted to be with you. I even mapped out a little plan in my head for how our life might go!" She exclaimed, and every time she used the past tense Lex felt a jolt of pain.

"I am so stupid, such an idiot, why did I…when did I ever give you the indication that I cared about him like that?" She asked.

He gaped for a moment, floundering before saying, "You've always had feelings for him, and every single time he calls you go running to help him out of whatever self-made mess he's stepped into this week! For someone so intelligent you have one gaping blind spot…"

Chloe narrowed her eyes and grit her teeth. "Don't try to defend you're disgusting actions by making me out to be some…some sort of manipulative liar. What you did was completely and totally inexcusable, no apology or, or gift is going to make up for it!" She exclaimed, the anger and betrayal finally outweighing her cavernous sadness.

Lex shook his head resolutely. "No, you have always put him first, it's like he's your kid, or something! When he has a hard time adjusting to us, you pull back. You defend him and all the while you knew that he's breaking the law! He's not a cop; he's just a pathetic...thing with a hero complex, Chloe! Why can't you see that? Why don't you realize…" He was pursuing the wrong venue.

"Realize what? That he wants to help, he wants to make the world a better place and as usual you are turning this on its head so you can avoid responsibility. You're perfectly willing to relent and apologize when you think I'll just run back to you, but what now? Now you resort to…petty insults and name calling and insisting that because I don't want you to experiment on my best friend I must be secretly in love with him?" She was shocked at her own ability to speak given her state. She felt as though she were ripped up the middle, every vital part of her spilling out into the ground and lost forever. She wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the floor into a heap and lay there forever but she was in shock. Her current distress was nothing compared to what she would feel when her defense system crumbled and she would be left alone with her own emotions pulling her apart.

He mimicked her trademark eye roll, but his heart wasn't in it. He knew he was losing her, but he wasn't about to acknowledge it. "I know you don't…or are not, but you'd have to have your head in the sand not to see the way he looks at you."

She closed her eyes and pressed a finger to her temple, fighting the impending headache. "Stop trying to change the focus, Lex. What you did…." She didn't have the strength to finish.

"That's not the point I'm trying to make, can you deny the fact that he's so obviously enamored with you? I just…overreacted, but I'm concerned, he's…not human."

"You've mentioned that multiple times." She sniped.

"The way he looks at you...it's like looking in a mirror." He hoped that if he deflected the focus for long enough...maybe he could elongate their last moments, perhaps he could have another minute or even second together.

"Stop trying to make this about him! What you did...it's awful, inexcusable. I can never..._will_ never forgive you for that." She could feel the onslaught of tears ripping through her and rattling in her chest. She would later wonder if this was how it felt when something inside of you died, was totally and completely torn from your unwilling body without any form of anesthetic. Try as she may, it could never be recovered. There was an innocence and an ability to love and trust the was irrevocably removed, leaving a gaping and painful hole festering inside of her.

Lex thought he was losing her and didn't quite realize that he had already lost her the moment he double crossed her. The sad truth was that if she were capable of forgiving this, of putting water under the bridge and moving on she just wouldn't be the woman he adored. He had always admired her fierce loyalty and stubborn independent streak, but had never seen that it would be key in undoing all they had striven for.

"Aren't you the least bit curious about what he is? I can find out, we can find out. He'll never have to know, he doesn't need to get hurt." Desperation was making him irrational, clinging to the hope that he could rope in her curiosity, depend upon the fact that she was a reporter first, and everything else came second. Were he to logically assess the situation he would have realized how futile this attempt was, that she was already out the door the moment he betrayed her trust and confidence.

She ignored him. "You can burn my things if you want, remember what I said. Goodbye." She tried to stay strong, but the burgeoning pain crept into her skull and pressed against her eyelids. She couldn't keep it together much longer.

"Don't go. Don't leave me!" He plead, and if he thought it would have helped him he would have dropped to his knees. "Chloe!"

She paused for a moment but pressed on, eyes blurry and legs turning to jelly.

He opened his mouth to object again but nothing came out and in a single moment she was gone for good. And from that day on, so was he.

**TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!! I hope you guys liked this chapter.**


	31. Schemers and Dreamers

**I'm so glad you guys liked the last chapter so much! I was really glad that I finally had a place to put it, I wrote it like in September :) Hope you like this newest installment.**

They talked well into the early morning hours, alternately whispering and shouting in dramatic exclamation. Over the hours Clark and Chloe inched closer and closer together until there was no space between them. They were lucky that it was a Sunday and neither had anywhere to be for the duration of the day, and both were so keyed up that they didn't get a wink of sleep.

Clark never ceased to surprise her; he didn't as much as wince when she recounted the entire experience. She made particular pains not to edit, fighting the dizzying desire to protect the guilty party.

He gazed into her eyes and nodded at varying intervals to indicate that he was listening. When she was finished he didn't say a word and the pair just laid in electric silence, the sound of their breath the only noise resonating in her bedroom. Clark wished that they could lie like this forever, forget the outside world and just live in their own bubble of reality. He hated the fact that the woman he loved still loved his enemy, their enemy, but he couldn't even feign surprise.

Denial was a strong motivator and while since they had embarked on a relationship he had never before entertained the thought, the heavy weight of certainty made him realize that he had known it all along. He knew Chloe, perhaps better than anyone, and he should have known her heart, but he was willing to ignore it for the sake of gratifying his own vanity. No man wanted to acknowledge that someone they loved loved another, especially someone as corrupted and amoral as Lex.

He never quite understood the attraction that existed between the two, but he couldn't deny that while they were together, they worked. It was strange and unexpected, but they made a good couple, not that Clark would ever acknowledge this aloud. They suited each other and no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, he knew that their connection was never wholly severed.

Clark was reluctant to break the peaceful quiet, but knew it was necessary. "What happened to Dr. Randall?"

Chloe shrugged, frowning. "I…don't know. It, uh, took a while for me to even start trying to figure it all out, but I guess by then I was too late." She admitted. "As far as I can tell, he just disappeared." This was more revealing than anything else; Lex's betrayal had even anesthetized her pervasive curiosity.

"How long ago?"

Chloe wracked her brain for a moment, fidgeting in his arms. "Um, I think about six years? Maybe a little more? He was already operating under the radar and his business relationship with Lex was the only thing that legitimatized him, he could've easily just gone back into the black market. It would be a lot more lucrative than working surrounded by red tape."

Clark considered that for a moment, silently fuming. She could feel his body tighten and before Chloe could question the rationale, he put and end to all doubt. "This is why you should've told me all of this…years ago!" His tone was still controlled, but she could hear the exasperation and frustration clear as the light of day.

"You're not capable of looking at the information objectively." He accused, but there was no venom in his voice and she had to admit that he had a point.

Chloe tried to brush it off, but found it too difficult. "And what's that supposed to mean?" She bristled.

Clark appeared surprised by her defensiveness, but didn't comment on it. "You're still…you still have feelings for Lex," it was difficult for him to admit this aloud, "and it clouds your judgment."

She was ready to argue but knew that there was no point. Her pride was wounded, but she couldn't deny the veracity in his accusation and he continued uninterrupted. "What do we know about him?" Chloe quirked an eyebrow and he conceded. "All right, I cast too wide a net; I need to be less specific. True or false; he is persistent in getting what he wants?"

"True."

"True or false; he is careless, makes mistakes and leaves loose ends."

Chloe smiled, but continued to play along nonetheless. "False."

"He has no scruples about getting what he wants."

"True." She knew that one first hand.

"He's the President of the United States."

This was getting ridiculous. "What about the multiple choice segment—"

"Just answer the question."

She rolled her eyes. "True."

"This Randall guy is dangerous."

She bit her lip. "True."

"He's willing to rat out his employers at the drop of a hat to avoid jail time?"

"True."

"Lex trusted him implicitly."

She paused, not sure where this was going. "False."

"Lex has more money and resources than any other person on the planet."

"Well I don't know about the planet…" She stopped herself when she caught a glimpse of his facial expression. "Okay, yeah, fine, true."

"Well, if we take the givens we can try to sketch out a scenario." He said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. She was surprised by what seemed to be the start of a mini monologue, perhaps he was learning to operate more independently. It pained her to acknowledge, but she wasn't as unflappable and reliable any more.

"Lex wouldn't let this guy, who knows so much information about me, you, and most importantly _Lex_, just roam free after all of this went down. And let's say he's feeling generous, fires him, gives him a nice settlement and slaps him with a privacy clause in his contract, he's not going to just trust this depraved and immoral doctor to keep his mouth shut, right?"

That was one of the things Chloe liked about Clark as he got older, after years of excluding her from his thought process and the danger that surrounded him 'for her own good,' he had at long last come to realize that life was infinitely easier when they worked together. Well aware her aversion to being kept out of the loop; he tried to keep her included, even when it really wasn't necessary. It was sweet.

"Right." She repeated skeptically. Chloe knew where this was going and she couldn't sort through the rush of emotions that consumed her as she considered the possibilities. Clark was right, she was never going to be able to decipher Lex's motives and intentions properly while she still felt the way she did about him.

She prided herself on cutting through the bullshit like a surgeon through bone, but she couldn't deny that he was her weak and blind spot. She knew what he was capable of but somehow couldn't fully exert her suspicions on him like she was able to do with anybody else. She didn't trust him by a long shot and knew what he was capable of, but her own troubling emotions and affections distorted her characterization of Lex, and Clark was able to see him in a light she wasn't capable of. Chloe could easily believe that he would claw his way to the top, step on and over people to get his way and act as immorally as humanly possible, but she found it too difficult to entertain the notion of murder…

"Think of it from his perspective; he may have started all of this with the best, or at least moderately okay intentions, to some degree he thought that when he ultimately revealed what I was…am." He struggled with the present tense for a moment before pushing forward. "He thought, or at least told himself, that you might turn against me, side with him and come to realize that I was a menace to society who needed to be put down, so he hired this hack to take a blood sample, analyze it, offer a diagnosis and probably promised him that he could do the autopsy." She nodded dumbly, amazed by his depth of perception. She was so accustomed to being the astute one with the techno skills while he was always more brawn than brains. She didn't think of herself as rigid to the possibility of change, but it felt strange to consider a role reversal.

As he gestured convincingly, his hand brushed against her arm and she felt a brief tingle. Despite her state of frustration and confusion, she knew one thing to be absolutely certain; she loved Clark. She had been pretty sure beforehand, at least positive that she cared deeply for him as a friend but not until she came so close to losing him did she understand just how important and absolutely vital he was to her.

It was only then that she started to realize that he most likely experienced a similar shock during the long months when their friendship dissolved and he was without a confidante. She never thought to ask him when it was that he stopped looking at her platonically, and now wasn't the time to confirm her beliefs.

"But it backfires, as he probably realized that it probably would, which is why he kept it from you in the first place. What he's left with is proof that I'm…_subhuman_," he said a little gruffly, determined to not let Lex's hatred bother him, "some of the clothes you left behind and a doctor who for all intents and purposes should have his medical license revoked, from what you tell me about his record. Let's give Lex the benefit of the doubt," it was evident by the unwillingness in his tone that he didn't want to, "say that he paid off Randall, threatened him and went about his business.

"That's all well and good, until Lex's aspiration for higher office actually seems to be a possibility rather than just a pipedream and he has succeeded in eliminating every skeleton from his closet, except for this one little loose end. Think, how much would the Planet pay for an exclusive with him. All of this dirt on a presidential candidate who connected himself with the likes of this Randall guy?"

Chloe gaped for a moment before forcing herself to play devil's advocate. "Don't you think you're sort of grasping for straws? There was no proof of any foul play in the good doctor's disappearance." But the words were hollow, even to her.

"What would make you think that Lex would leave proof behind?" She knew it was true, but didn't want it to be. She couldn't explain her aversion to entertaining the thought that Lex would sink low enough to order the death of his underling. It was all well and good to be bitter and profess her desire to have Lex permanently exorcized from her life, but the truth was that she didn't know what the truth was anymore. Acknowledging how she felt about him changed everything, and she couldn't deny the fact that the idea of Lex sacrificing some degenerate to protect his own image was as sickening as it was plausible.

"You think he…killed him, or had him killed." Clark could hear the weakness in her voice and wrapped his arms around her tentatively, feeling the ember of warmth expand to his entire being as she snuggled into his chest. Over the years Chloe unintentionally chipped out a piece of him, a part that ached in her absence and warmed in her presence. It had started out small, almost unnoticeable, but it continued to grow and grow until there was a grumbling chasm and more of Clark belonged to her than it did to himself.

He nodded. "Yes."

"Can we do anything about that?" She asked, voice hollow and detached.

"I really don't know. I think we should still try to find out as much as we can about him. You say that at LuthorCorp you have extensive search engines and location programs, right?" She smiled humorlessly at his second attempt to engage her in the conversation but nodded to humor him.

"Yeah, we do. But I'm sure they're monitored, and Lex knows that I…well, that I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid on him so to speak. I don't think I can do much effective research from there without getting caught."

He contemplated this for a moment. "Your laptop's not safe, either. He had it for too long and his men would be fools if they didn't equip it with some type of monitor." Of course, he couldn't make it _that_ easy. She already knew that, but hearing it said allowed annoyed her immensely.

She sighed. "I'm sure he's tried to have my apartment and the farm bugged. I've found a few now and again, and I'd bet anything he's got a wiretap on my phone."

Clark was silent for a moment. "I've been through your apartment more than a few times," he admitted, "and I've found eight. I'm...pretty sure that there aren't anymore in here, and definitely not in your room. Did you know that there was one stashed in your alarm clock?"

Chloe choked out a laugh at the absurdity. "Really? Did you check the toaster?"

He nodded staunchly, hiding the trace of a smile. "Of course. And, as I'm sure you've noticed from your own search, these are very high-tech devices. Luckily they emit a slight frequency that I can detect, but only if I concentrate for an extended period of time." She smiled in confusion, wondering why she didn't notice the slight alteration in his investigative prowess. She was ashamed and embarrassed to realize that she had underestimated his abilities, she had been so busy and self-absorbed that she hadn't taken notice.

"How often do you come into my apartment and go bug hunting?" The sun was drooping lazily in the sky and Chloe could hardly believe that it was already seven in the morning. She stifled a yawn, anticipating Clark's response.

He grinned sheepishly. "Every so often, I guess. I'm not going to admit to the actual number," he teased. "I'm just…worried about you, Chlo...even though I know you can take care of yourself." He added hastily to avoid any hairsplitting she might attempt.

She wasn't in the mood to pick apart his method of expression. "What can we do about Lex?"

Clark was glad that in their current position she couldn't see his facial expression, because he wasn't succeeding very well at hiding his distaste. "I don't know. I'm really starting to reconsider your idea to leave."

This surprised her. "Really? What would we do? Where would we go?" She knew she was mirroring his prior concerns but they were valid questions.

"Where do you feel like heading?"

"Maybe somewhere tropical, Costa Rica?" Chloe considered, weighing the pros versus the cons. The deciding factor was that she didn't tan well. "No, Europe."

Clark nodded, satisfied with her selection. "I really like Europe. They won't try to kill me there." He joked, but she knew it was a serious and valid concern.

Chloe winced. "Yeah, those Europeans seem less apt to chase after a hero with pitchforks and torches." She agreed, turning to kiss his collarbone before sitting up in bed.

"He could find us." He said lightly, playing with her hair. They were both living in a world of fantasy, but it was a welcome reprieve.

Chloe shook her head definitively. "No, he _will_ find us." That was a dash of cold water.

He furrowed his eyebrow, surprised by her sudden burst of cynicism. While this was usually her predisposition concerning anything Lex, he had been enjoying their flight of the imagination. "What?"

"Going to Europe…or wherever we may travel is the end plan. If we think that he won't hunt us down within days of fleeing we're crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a tracking device clipped on my purse or something and he can monitor the transportation."

"I can fly, you know." He reminded her, propping his elbow up against her pillow and gazing into her face with unabashed adoration.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm well aware of your super abilities," she remarked sarcastically, "but I know you, Clark. You wouldn't want to live a hit and run life, fleeing every time we're discovered and relocating like crazy. Hell, all I want to do is run away and hide under a rock in Uzbekistan or someplace where we can't be found."

It wasn't safe to be around Lex…especially now that all of her self-deception had proven to be in vain. God, she loved him and she wanted him, the feeling hadn't dissipated over time as she had cherished a hope that it would. She always imagined that she would laugh at her silliness and come to the realization that nothing was the same and everything had changed. But she couldn't lie to herself anymore.

She felt like the damsel in distress in some little fairytale, drawn to the villain with such an inexplicable force that it defied logic and reason. It would be too easy to forgive and forget his transgressions, but she was not the type of woman who would, or could, overlook such a thing. In a strange way Lex was in a no-win situation; in all likelihood they could never be together again because in any scenario where it happened Chloe simply wouldn't be Chloe. She couldn't be the woman he loved if she was capable of selective amnesia, but he wouldn't be Lex if he would just give up so easily.

It was a strange conundrum she was in; she loved him. Of this she was absolutely certain. But he had betrayed her, shown himself to be incredibly morally expendable and willing to go behind her back to try to have Clark killed. And while her passion for Lex was incomparable to any attraction she had ever had for someone else, she loved Clark. She had meant what she said; he was no consolation prize, not just a warm body to heat up her bed and keep her company. She trusted him and felt an irrational desire to protect him from Lex or anyone else who wished him harm and she was increasingly certain that she wanted to spend the duration of her days with him.

All of the ambiguity in her had dissipated; when she told Clark the truth and he came back nonetheless, there was a perceptible change inside of her. Clark would come first; she would help him and stay with him no matter what. It wasn't just a matter of loyalty, but it was a change in priority and a confirmation of what she had only thus suspected to be true. In a strange way she had Lex to thank for this revelation, if it hadn't been for their meeting, their kissing and her infidelity she never would have realized just how much her relationship with Clark meant to her. She was dedicated to him, and not even her intense attraction to Lex could make her forget how much she owed the man of steel, and how much he meant to her.

She knew for a fact that Lex felt no remorse for his actions and his only regret was that he had been discovered and lost Chloe as a direct result. If anything his moral compass corroded even more over the years, she couldn't fool herself into thinking that he would ever see the error in his ways. _If he could_...she couldn't let herself think like that. To operate outside of reality would only cause more pain and confusion. She knew him and knew that he was capable of nearly anything, but not of genuine contrition. If he could somehow alter the outcome, he would do the same thing all over again.

She couldn't prove it, but she knew him well enough to know that he was up to no good. He always behaved in a manner that would serve his own purposes and she knew that his stint as President of the United States was no different.

It was dangerous to be in such a close proximity to him, and Lex was well aware of it. She lost her trump card, revealed her hand too soon and now she was without a bartering chip or a strong leg to stand on. He knew that, despite her best efforts, she wasn't able to overcome her feelings in the years they had been apart. If given the chance, he would pounce and find some sort of leverage. She may be guilty of turning a blind eye to his violent nature, but she knew perfectly well what he was capable of when it came to getting what he wanted.

Clark pulled her out of her contemplative reverie. "We could hide in the jungles of the Amazon." He suggested.

She threw herself back into the conversation, perhaps too enthusiastically. "How would you save the world in some tree house on the other side of the world?"

Clark considered this for a moment before coming to the inevitable conclusion. "I could give it up for a while, you know. Just for a little while." He added when he saw the look of surprise and disbelief flit across her face.

"No, no, that's who you are. I can't take that away from you." She sank back down onto the mattress and pressed her cheek to his ribcage.

"You're not taking anything; it's what I do, not who I am. And it'll just be temporary, until the heat dies down a little. I think getting away and protecting you is much more important than…" His voice trailed off and Chloe was more than happy to interject.

"Than saving lives? No, what you do is so important and, and great. And you know Lex," _not as well as I do_ she thought to herself; "he's not just going to give up after a few weeks, or months, maybe not even years. He's not like that; it'll be a game to him, a test of his abilities and the skill of his team." She was successful at keeping the admiration out of her voice; she was the exact same way. Dogged and ruthless in the pursuit until the very end, he wasn't going to just give up, especially when she was involved. His relentlessness terrified and fascinated her. He would see an inability to discover them as a personal failure on his part and a success for Clark.

Clark threw his hands up slightly, frustrated with this turn of conversation. "What do you propose we do about that, just wait for his interest to wane or for someone to finally catch him with his hand in the cookie jar?" He knew better than to hope for that, it had been a few years short of a decade and Lex still wasn't giving up or giving in.

Chloe's lips curved up into an ironic smile. "That would be ideal, but no one's been able to get substantial dirt on him in all of his years. Any black spots on his record were long since expunged and the only thing he couldn't hide from the general public was his playboy activities in his youth. Ha, and even that was given a positive spin!" She recalled the exclusive he on The View on the subject and how he was able to seem winsome and dependable even when discussing his rampant promiscuity.

Clark's mind seemed to be similarly engaged. "Barbara Walters was in love with him." He couldn't disguise the bitterness in his tone, but Chloe ignored it for his sake.

"He doesn't have any boundaries and he tends to react to bad news like a kid deprived of dessert. I don't think it's beyond him to respond badly if we were to disappear." And that was understating it.

Clark surprised her by shaking his head thoughtfully, lost in contemplation. "Hmm, I think Lex would be thrilled if I just went away. It's you that would evoke a rash reaction."

Chloe adjusted herself and peered into his eyes suspiciously. "What exactly are you getting around to?" He shrugged and smiled mischievously as she swatted his arm playfully. "Ooh, you're being coy, now?" She asked, surprised by this turn of events.

"I guess so." He said laughingly, taking her hand in his gently as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Her heart skipped a beat and she reclined backward, losing any and all desire to leave the bed. It was so much easier to analyze her own feelings and emotions with the burden of guilt lifted off of her shoulders and she could see clear as the light of day that she would be content just to lay with him for the rest of eternity. She always hated the idea of defining herself thriough her relationships but something just felt so innately right when they were together.

Chloe quirked an eyebrow felt a shiver of pleasure crawl up her spine as he affectionately kissed the back of her neck. "Divulge the plan, Kent." She ordered with mock seriousness.

He wasn't one to disappoint her. Clark smiled and shrugged reflexively. "Here's what I was thinking…"

**Tell me what you think! I have to admit, I love scheming Chloe/Clark even if there's not much action, there was still plentiful character development. Tell me what you think! (I'm like an echo...)**


	32. Quid Pro Quo

**Thanks so much for all of your reviews, I really appreciate them! I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. And there's a section in here that's certain to make a LOT of people happy.**

For an evil organization, LuthorCorp had some suspiciously congenial employees. Even though she had been a member of the staff for months, it still surprised Chloe when she was greeted in the hallways, singled out during lunch break and asked her opinion on various matters to which she was hesitant to oblige.

While all of her new coworkers were so ecstatic to see her, she was never once invited to participate in any after work activity, though she knew for a fact that they went out for drinks on more than one occasion. She was increasingly certain that something strange was up.

The same suspicion that made her so adept at ferreting out the truth and writing illuminating articles on controversial topics picked at her paranoia until she at long last discovered the true reason as the receptionist Laurel beamed at Chloe as she approached her desk. She hesitated before stepping forward, armed with a folder full of documents that needed to be copied.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Sullivan. Would you like me to deliver these to the executive office for you?" She asked cheerfully and professionally, demurring as though she were addressing the head honcho. Chloe nodded in confusion as Laurel reached for the folder and clambering quickly to her feet, as though terrified that lack of promptness would be punished. Chloe furrowed her eyebrow, the girl didn't report to her, why was she so panic-stricken?

As she contemplated this it immediately came together, as though she had been missing a vital piece of the puzzle. They knew…or at least Laurel did. Her fellow employees had to know…had to realize that she and Lex…she didn't even know how to finish that thought.

_Oh, great_. And up until this annoying little revelation, it had been a great morning so far. She and Clark were able to spend an entire night together, which only happened once in a blue moon. And she woke up next to him, wrapped in his arms feeling so incredibly…content. She couldn't think of another word to describe it, how all the buzzing of the everyday monotony seemed to fade away when they were together. It had been over a month since she had blurted out the truth, and instead of withering like she had feared that they would in this new era of honesty their relationship was flourishing.

They had plans, definite but without the details worked out. She had no idea how they were going to pull it off, though Clark's planning and dedication to finding some sort of liberation for the two of them...Chloe specifically. And for once this didn't make her feel trapped or scared, it felt oddly liberating. She could sit here and take whatever he was about to toss at her, sitting and smiling all the while, thinking about her future escape.

For the first time, she was certain. She knew that it was horribly clichéd, but she didn't know herself and her feelings until she came so close to losing him all together. It was scary and new, but they would work through it. The only problem was; how could they do it with Lex looming around? Some girls had horror stories of crazy stalking exes, but none of them had to face off against the President of the United States. While she hadn't seen him for a while…okay, eight weeks, four days and about 13 hours, she felt as though he were omnipresent. And she hated not knowing whether relief or disappointment were the more powerful emotions battling it out inside of her.

But at least for once, she knew what she wanted and it was refreshing to realize that it wasn't Lex. She loved Clark, and more than anything she just wanted to be with him, get the hell out of Dodge and go throughout her life with him. God, she really did. She hadn't...refused to entertain the thought of a more permanent future. But it wasn't because she didn't want it, need it, but she was frustrated by her inability to think of a way it could actually work without compromising Clark's innate desire to implement his gift for the betterment of society. How were they ever going to find a way to get away from Lex, could they actually outsmart him, be a few steps ahead? It wouldn't be easy, but she was going to try her hardest.

Chloe felt horribly exposed as she walked back to her office, paranoia convincing her that the eyes of her coworkers were following her. As she stepped into the office door she jumped when she realized that she was not alone. Chloe had no idea how Lex always found a way to sneak inside the building without anyone noticing, but he always managed to find a way.

He leaned back in her chair, eyes fixed on her face to survey her reaction. Chloe fought to keep her expression neutral but her cheeks were still burning from the mortification of her realization. Her mind instantly jumped to her paranoid fear, but she tried to squelch the overpowering impulse to leap to conclusions.

"Missed me?" He asked. And that was all it took. Her heart leapt up into her throat and a wave of confusion consumed her. She couldn't tell which emotion was more dominant; the panic or the usual rush of hormones. _He knows, _the worry intensified as her subconscious interjected that unhelpful and fear inducing possibility. She tried to push the thought away, but his expression was drawn and she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he wasn't just dropping in for the sake of it.

She knew that if it were possible he would have lingered after their most recent rendezvous, he was nothing if not persistent, but his pesky job as Commander in Chief held him back for much longer than he would have liked. She found herself nearly telepathic when it came to dissecting Lex's motives when it concerned her, and it came as a stabbing shock when she realized that his agenda for this 'visit' was not so amiable. And she couldn't help but recall what Clark had warned her about. She had to go into this ordeal with her head on straight and her eyes wide open.

"Two months wasn't long enough." Her voice was steadier than she would have expected.

He ignored this. "Did you get my flowers?" He propped his hands up behind his head, exuding confidence and charisma.

"Yes." She didn't need to add that she gave them to Lois in order to perk up her apartment. Even in her state of righteous anger she couldn't bring herself to throw out a perfectly good bouquet of gardenias and lilacs. They smelled so damn good.

Lex quirked an eyebrow in mock shock, "And no thank you note? I thought that you had better manners than that! Dear Abby would be ashamed."

He wasn't going to shame her, well, it seemed as though he was going to try, but she wasn't about to let it bother her. "I seem to recall expressly asking you not to do that. A gentleman wouldn't have gone back on his word." Her heart was pounding hard and she found it difficult to remain stone faced. She couldn't help but sneak sly looks at his expression, trying to imagine how that face would contort with rage if she were to up and leave.

He once again chose to ignore her. "There have been significantly fewer sightings of the infamous Superman these past few weeks. Has the boy wonder taken to the underground?" The more she interacted with him the more Chloe realized that Lex had a rigid set of talking points and that all of them seemed to include mocking Clark and trying to get a rise out of her.

Chloe yawned deliberately, flipping her hair over her shoulder and checking her watch. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you talking or was I just having an intensely boring moment of déjà vu?"

He smiled, and it annoyed her. "Oh how I love these stimulating conversations."

"You're in my seat." She said through gritted teeth. She was terrified, entirely uncertain of what his motivations were.

To her irritation but not surprise, he ignored her. "How have you been? I see you've let your hair grow out a little. And since we spent more time arguing than exchanging pleasantries after our last conversation, I don't think I complimented you on your glasses, they suit you."

"I like my chair and you're currently in it, why is that?"

"Why don't you ever answer my questions?" Ha, and she could also ask why he was failing to acknowledge anything she said.

"You're a politician, you should know that everything's about compromise. Quid pro quo, you get your ass out of my seat and I'll entertain the thought of actually engaging in a conversation with you." But no promises.

He surprised her by coming to his feet and pulling the chair out for her in a gentleman-like manner, visibly amused. Her words and actions never ceased to entertain him. Even when he intruded upon her during work hours, catching her unawares and unprepared she somehow still managed to get the upper hand in the exchange nonetheless. He wasn't sure whether it pissed him off or excited him more.

"Now may we confer like adults?" He asked graciously.

"As long as you don't give me no lines and keep your hands to yourself, I don't see why not."

He suppressed a smile as she recited the lyrics and instead opted to recline in the visitor's chair. "Your supervisors have given you glowing performance reviews. You seem to never be tardy and the attention to detail is staggering. I can tell by the quality of your work that you're pleased with your position." He didn't ask, and Chloe refused to voluntarily admit it to be the truth.

"I doubt my supervisors would dare to give me a negative review when you seem to have made it clear that you have invested a personal interest in my well being." She was surprised by her own loquaciousness, but found that she was becoming increasingly capable of articulacy in stressful situations.

"What makes you think they know that you are of particular importance?"

Chloe shrugged, acting as though she had known all along that her coworkers regarded her as more of a mistress than a colleague. "The way I'm treated, how everyone jumps to attention when I'm around and no one comes in to check on my progress. Did you tell them or did they just read between the lines?"

He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "If I'd have to select from those limited options I'd guess that they read through the lines. I hardly broadcast my romantic entanglements to my staff." He coldly replied.

"Why are you here?" She knew it was redundant, the question she always seemed to ask, but maybe today would be the day he leveled with her.

"There are many reasons, I suppose, but the primary one is just a friendly reminder that the computers in this facility are indeed monitored." She nodded slowly; she already figured that he did that for the sake of security. Even high school computers were monitored these days, why wouldn't a multi-billion dollar company do the same? Even before she and Clark discussed it she figured that any keywords would be flagged and supervisors would be informed, and in her case she knew that Lex would be able to access any and all of her records. She breathed a sigh of relief; whatever the hell he was accusing her of or trying to pin on her wasn't true. He didn't know.

"Your point being?"

He leaned forward, but it was difficult to intimidate when Chloe was looming over him in the superior chair. "I know you've been digging, don't try to deny it." She was confused, what exactly was he accusing her of? "I can't always protect you."

She had planned to play coy, but decided it was too much work and wouldn't yield enough results. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Lex opened his mouth to snap back, but there was something in her expression that stopped him. "There was a search conducted on an office computer concerning sensitive data…" Damn, he wasn't just going to give it up so easily.

"What kind of 'sensitive data' are we talking here?" She knew he would never offer full disclosure in a venue such as this, but she asked nonetheless.

"Classified." Of course it was.

"And what exactly is it that you think I've done?"

He considered this for a moment. "Someone broke into the facility after hours and conducted a search…"

"On my computer?" She asked, immensely confused.

Lex shook his head. "No, not yours. The security tape was removed and…are you saying that you didn't do this?" He seemed genuinely surprised by her denial.

Thank you, captain obvious. "Yes, I had nothing to do with this." Her mind instantly turned to Clark but she tried to remain rooted in her confusion and not tip her hand.

Lex was momentarily stumped, sitting in silence and contemplating the possibilities. Hindsight was 20/20 and she could tell from the expression on his face that he was instantly regretting divulging so much information. "If you're lying…" He started to threaten, but it was clear that his heart wasn't in it.

"Yeah, yeah, you can flog me with a wet noodle or whatever. Is that all you wanted, to waste my time with baseless accusations and vague threats?" She asked, pleased that she managed to make him blush.

"Well—no, actually there were a few other things I wanted to discuss with you." He instigated eye contact and she found it increasingly difficult to break away.

"Such as…"

"I'm going to cut to the chase, no frills." He stated decidedly, ignoring Chloe's mock celebration dance.

"Finally." She exclaimed, and her sarcasm elicited a deep frown.

"This is serious."

She rolled her eyes. "It always is, isn't it?" His stare turned ice cold and instead of shying away from his anger and annoyance she reveled in it, reclining back and mimicking his prior position on her chair. She considered kicking her legs up to complete the picture, but seeing as she was wearing a skirt she didn't think that would be a wise course of action.

"Are you living with him?" She almost fell out of her chair and went splat on the tasteful carpeting. She knew he was preoccupied with her love life, now that one actually existed, but she didn't expect him to be so open about his main concerns.

"No." Normally she might have played it closer to the vest, but she was too surprised to do so.

He nodded thoughtfully. "Good, good."

"Is that all you wanted to know? You came up here from Washington to make sure I didn't break into LuthorCorp and to see if I was living with Clark or not?" She questioned in disbelief.

He stared at her, and that was confirmation enough.

"What a fantastic waste of time."

He didn't argue that, but she could see the confliction in his features. "You seem to be very much into the tit for tat, so I'm going to offer you something I would never normally offer."

He succeeded in captivating her interest, but she kept her face immobile in order to play it close to the vest. "I'll consider it."

Lex nodded, though she was certain that he didn't need her confirmation to continue. "If you answer me something, honestly, and I'll know if you're lying…you can ask me whatever you want and I'll extend the same courtesy." Today was a great day for shockers.

For the life of her she couldn't understand why she was so willing and able to comply. She expected reluctance, and her eagerness was ill-founded. She weighed the pros versus the cons; she could get answers, finally! Well…an answer, at least. But in order to get that, she needed to throw herself under the bus, put herself at his mercy all for the sake of sating her curiosity. While she tried to remain objective, to consider all sides of the argument, her mind was made up two seconds after he spoke.

The first thing that would have normally stopped her would have been the thought of Clark, but even though she knew that he wouldn't be happy. But he wanted the same thing that she did, and though he would disprove of her methods he couldn't argue with the results.

"Shoot."

He wasn't surprised by her willingness, or at least if he was he didn't allow it to visible faze him. He exhaled and she felt tense and uncertain. She was put off by his anxiety, it was out of character for someone as supremely confident as Lex to demure so easily. "Do you love him the way you loved…love me?"

She gaped for a moment and forced herself not to answer immediately, because she could feel her defense mechanisms gear up and she was almost certain that she wouldn't tell the whole truth. She already had an entire monologue drafed in her head that she dashed in favor of unpleasant honesty. She couldn't just lie or omit...but why not? Maybe if she could lie convincingly…she banished the thought as soon as it entered her mind.

He would know; he was better than a human lie detector when it came to these matters…especially when it concerned her. Chloe couldn't be sure that he would keep his promise, perhaps he would insist that she was lying no matter what her response was. But if she wanted answers she would have to offer full disclosure and give him no leeway.

"I love him," she was surprised by the strength in her voice. "But it's not the same." She wasn't certain of the extent of her own feelings until she spoke them aloud, but this rang true. Chloe really and truly loved Clark, but she couldn't deny that there had been something more with Lex. She didn't love him more or less, it was just different.

He remained still and the expression on his face froze in place. "Why? How?"

She opened her mouth to protest, insist that she answered the one question he required, but something stopped her.

"I can't…how do you expect me to answer that?"

His eyebrows shot up to his forehead. "You are a very articulate woman, you can try."

She blotted her eyes quickly, resolving that she wouldn't cry…she couldn't do that in front of him again. It made her feel weak and pathetic, as well as vulnerable and she hated feeling as though her emotions were out of her control.

"It's not for lack of trying," she admitted. "I love him and I trust him but…I don't know, something in me died after, well, you."

The look on his face was unfathomable and she couldn't tell if this pleased him or not. "You love him, though." He was careful not to make it a question, but he didn't realize he had already exceeded his limit.

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, I do. I don't have to explain myself to you but I'm happy with him, and nothing's missing. But…it was just, I guess, a once in a lifetime thing with you." She was shocked by her own honesty and by the pain it gave her, she would have thought that she would guard that Intel with her life, but once the floodgates opened she couldn't shut them again.

"Then why…" He started to ask, but she cut him off before he could complete his train of thought. She would wonder later if her refusal to hear what he had to say was a defense mechanism; if she was trying to avoid a frank discussion in order to spare her own feelings. But she couldn't dwell on that now.

"You asked me three questions, can I do the same?" He was surprised by her astute directness, but wasn't going to surrender so easily.

"I most certainly did not." He responded, brow furrowed.

Chloe rolled her eyes, he just would not make this easy. "The Clark question, why I felt the way I felt and how I could possibly feel that way. That is one, two three questions!"

Lex surrendered his denial and felt a wave of admiration at her ability to think clearly. Almost anyone else would have forgotten these little questions, but not her. "You always want answers," he muttered, pacing. "You can ask two."

She rolled her eyes. "Three!"

He shook his head. "I didn't ask invasive questions, they were simply follow up to the precursor. Two is more than adequate."

"It's not my fault you didn't take advantage of our Q and A session. Three." He concealed an emerging smile; the seriousness of their previous discussion seemed to have dissipated...at least temporarily.

"Fine, I'll allow three…but I want something in return." Of course he did.

"What do you want?" She asked warily.

He shrugged. "Just a kiss." She felt a jolt of fear that she was incapable of masking in time and her discomfort brought a smile to his face. "I think it's perfectly reasonable, given the situation."

"You have got to be kidding." She stalled.

Lex's eyebrows shot up to where his hairline would be. "You know I'm not." That was true.

Her mind immediately turned to Clark. _Any means necessary…_he wouldn't be happy, but he wanted answers the same as she did. This was different than before, this wasn't a secret rendezvous or a shameful moment of weakness. Her compliance would benefit both of them, and this wasn't just a rationalization, it was the truth.

She reached for the telephone and started to dial, hitting the first three digits of Clark's number. "One minute."

He shook his head derisively, feeling a wave of boiling rage rising in his stomach. She wanted to ask _permission? _Since when did she answer to anyone? He wasn't about to let her ask. "Does he know about before?" He questioned stonily before he was able to restrain himself.

She was slightly surprised by the question, but shrugged it off. "I'm sorry but you're out of questions." She said sweetly, reaching for the phone and beginning to dial.

"You _ask_ and the deal's off." It was petty and borderline pathetic, but he knew that this time it was within his power, and he was going to use it. She paused and hung up.

When Chloe gathered her thoughts she quirked an eyebrow, effectively hiding her surprise after accidentally revealing her concern. "If this is a point of bartering, I want four questions. I'm already entitled to the three." She said coolly, determined to finally get some answers. She couldn't believe she was willing to agree to these terms, but as her heart pounded in her chest she realized that she was more than willing.

He frowned as though this were a point of contention. "Three, just three, but they can be as invasive as you want." She shrugged and he nodded decidedly, as though they had just settled the terms of a contract. Chloe opened her mouth to begin the interrogation, but Lex shook his head to stop her.

"You live up to your end of the bargain first." He disregarded his seat and took a confident step forward as she slowly came to her feet, locking her knees and striding forward.

Chloe paused for a moment, inches away from Lex. She leaned forward hesitantly and pressed her lips to his cheek, a shiver shooting down her spine as she did so. Being in such a close proximity frightened her more than she cared to admit, especially because the possibility that he had a person murdered to suit his own agenda had nothing to do with it.

He sighed, "That's hardly worth another question." Chloe growled and grimaced, mere centimeters from Lex's face.

She pulled away and head butted him fiercely, crashing her mouth into his, intending to injure but succeeding in getting a fervent reaction. She couldn't have anticipated her own response and pressed herself against him as they were lost in a wave of heat, the fire nearly consuming them both.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and like a metal to magnet her body instinctively collided with his. He tilted his head backward and she pulled on his tie roughly and cruelly, constricting his breath as her lips fought his. Even in a moment like this, everything was a power struggle. Lex's need to breathe battled the overwhelming desire to kiss her without interruption. She refused to surrender, choking him angrily whilst she embraced him.

His eyes blurred and he snatched her hands with all of his strength, pinning them over her head and up against the wall. He loosened the impromptu noose around his neck, never breaking the kiss. Chloe's mind went fuzzy and her legs turned to pudding and every fiber of her being responded with intense enthusiasm. He shoved the rest of her against the wall passionately, trapping her.

Chloe's shoulders collided with the sheet rock as he kissed her wholeheartedly. His lips traveled her neck and throat and diligently worked their way downward, fingers gently but earnestly pulling at her blouse, unfastening it rapidly, his mouth everywhere at once.

When her brain flickered back on she found that her legs were wrapped snugly around his waist and her shirt was ripped open and unbuttoned entirely, floral bra out in the open for all to see.

"Oh god," She unclenched her legs, pushing away from him and adjusting herself. She quickly buttoned up her blouse and swatted away Lex's attempts to assist her. He looked supremely smug despite the fact that her lip-gloss was smeared on his lips and his clothes in a state of disarray. Chloe tried her best to ignore the evident strain on his pants as she moved away, gasping for air.

She patted down her hair and straightened her glasses stepping backward and collapsing into her chair, breathless.

"Was that worth a fourth question?"

He laughed easily, rubbing his throat. "Hell, that was worth ten but we made a deal. Three, feel free to ask at any time."

Chloe struggled to catch her breath, seeing Lex discreetly drape his jacket over his lap out of the corner of her eye. Damn, he had her flustered and incapable of thinking straight. Was this all part of the plan? All she could think about was ripping his clothes off with her teeth and…no, no. God, she could really use a cup of coffee.

Her hormones were heightened after her romantic night and long morning with Clark. Good, good. Thinking of her boyfriend was certainly a dash of cold water on her libido that she needed. Her body betrayed her mind and common sense and it took a ridiculous amount of self-control to restrain and compose herself.

"Are you ready? Or would you like to continue…" He trailed off suggestively and merited a furious glare.

"I'm just…collecting my thoughts."

"Take your time." He leaned back, relaxed, propping his hands behind his head. That bastard, she thought darkly. She couldn't help but wonder whether or not he would uphold his end of the bargain, he could easily lie or omit and for the life of her she couldn't figure out whether he was more likely to be honest or lie through his teeth. She knew that he would do nearly anything to put himself back into her good graces, but she was moderately confident that she could weed through the bullshit, but it wasn't exactly a science.

"If you lie…" She tried to threaten, unintentionally mirroring his prior attempt at intimidation. She didn't know what else to do, she was so discombobulated and aroused that it took an immense amount of self-control to even try to think of anything apart from her own gratification.

He shrugged. "You can make as many veiled and empty threats as you want."

Chloe rolled her eyes and yanked up her shirt, trying in vain to extinguish the heat washing over her body in waves, resisting the desire to fan herself with a nearby folder full of documents.

"Need some more time?" He asked with faux sympathy.

Chloe rolled her eyes and pulled herself together, hoping that she was effectively concealing her distraction. "What did that little piece of paper mean?" It was obvious that he hadn't expected her to compose her thoughts so quickly because he gaped for a moment, completely caught off guard. No one ever knocked the breath out of him quite as effectively as she could.

A pained expression crossed his face but he made a valiant attempt at honesty, as though trying to prove that he was capable of keeping his promises. "I don't know all of it yet, despite the fact that I have had men on it for months and months." The bitterness in his voice was evident.

Chloe nodded, keeping her expression neutral and trying to maintain her poker face. "We've figured that the numbers are simply keystrokes that compose a text message." He laughed humorlessly at the simplicity of it all and Chloe couldn't help but feel a pang of frustration that they hadn't thought to try that.

"But that's just one piece to the puzzle, I'm certain there must be something else. We tested the document to see if it was soaked in any indicative compound but it appears to just be a run of the mill piece of paper, the kind of stationary that offices and homes use, so that isn't traceable."

Chloe nodded curtly and looked at him expectantly. He caught on quickly. "Strangely most of the numbers actually just turn out to be numbers in word form." He hesitated, not wanting to give her so much information but he knew that she wouldn't be satisfied with anything short of full disclosure.

"It reads: seven-hundred eighty-three SDB." She knew that the letters must have meant safety deposit box and was certain that he realized this as well, but neither of them were about to tip their hand.

"That's as much as we know. There are far too many locations to scour without more evidence, but my men are still working and retesting." He sounded a bit defensive but Chloe didn't pay attention to that. She was certain that there were other clues and indicators that he wasn't filling her in on, but that was just fine.

She'd gotten what she needed seeing as she had just given him a copy, hiding the original for her own intents and purposes. It was exactly what he would have done, and as she was beginning to fear, she was no different.

Chloe didn't have the time or the desire to dissect her motives and the rationale behind her lying, but if she were to take the time she would realize that she was simply playing the game by the rules that were in play. At the time she had worried that Lex would discover the truth, realize that she had acted the same way he would have. Lex simply didn't expect it of her, he never thought that she might have learned a thing or two from him that she could apply to his detriment. She was curious as to how he would react should he discover that she hadn't complied with his desire as he had assumed she would. She hoped that he would never find out.

**PLEASE REVIEW! I know I sound like a broken record but I like to know what y'all think. I know a lot of you are going to enjoy that kissing part :)**


	33. Some Unholy War

**Thank you guys so much for all your reviews and support I really appreciate it. Hope you like this chappie!**

Chloe knew what she wanted to ask, there were questions that weighed on her conscience that she felt the intense desire to figure out, but she wasn't sure whether or not she wanted the answers. In theory it was all okay, perhaps he was a coldblooded and opportunistic murderer with the morals of a sociopath, but she still harbored an inane desire to find out that Lex was innocent of that in the very least.

But she knew that Clark was right. He simply couldn't allow someone with no loyalties and so much damaging Intel to pose a threat to his political aspirations. Logically she knew that there was at the very most a slim chance that he hadn't ended the good doctor's life, but she needed to know. Though it was hard to swallow Chloe had to admit that she did have a glaring blind spot when it came to Lex.

They sat in silence for only a moment before Chloe blurted out her next question. "Did you have Dr. Randall killed?" She didn't know why she cared or why she was wasting a precious question on that rotten bastard, but she couldn't help herself. Perhaps therein lied the difference between Lex and Chloe; to her the loss of human life was inexcusable and irrevocable no matter what or who while he adopted a positively Machiavellian stance on the matter.

It was clear that he hadn't expected that, but she hadn't quite blind sided him with the question either. Lex was cool, calm and collected as he stared her straight in the eye and said, "No, I didn't." But beyond the shadow of a doubt she knew it was a lie, that he was guilty as charged. She thought that she had reconciled herself to the overwhelming possibility, even probability that he had ordered the death of a loose end but she found herself staggered nonetheless.

It wasn't that she hadn't known that he was capable of it; it was that she hadn't wanted to think that he would actually act in self-interest to the point of murder. How could she possibly feel this way about someone who was so morally expendable? How could she love a remorseless murderer?

It didn't say much about her own character that she continued to love him, despite all of his horrendous actions. She hadn't realized it, but it was different knowing for sure that he had done something so self-serving and wrong. When Chloe could paint him as merely morally ambiguous it was easier to justify her emotions and rationalize the attraction, and now such self-deception wasn't possible.

She didn't push the point and pretended to swallow the lie. "That's two, Ms. Sullivan. Do you have a third one hidden up your sleeve?" he asked, attempting to understate his great desire to change the topic through subtlety. Chloe pretended to fall for it.

"Give me a minute; I've got a million and twelve that I have to narrow down to one," she muttered thoughtfully, not missing the flash of relief that flickered across his face as she turned away from her previous question. She couldn't confront him and insist that he was lying, though he was, it would simply put him on the defensive which would quickly become an impenetrable offense. It was much wiser to leave well enough alone.

He leaned back as far as humanly possible, reclining in the uncomfortable plastic chair as though it were a plush throne. "Take your time; it's refreshing to talk to you without having to gird my loins." She rolled her eyes but didn't bother to comment.

They sat in silence for a few long moments, Lex steepling his tapered fingers into a chapel formation and watching Chloe intently while she tried to muster up the brain power to formulate a worthwhile question. "I think I've got it…" She said slowly in order to break the tense silence. She was feeling something too akin to familiarity for her taste.

He cupped his hand a waved her on, as though she required his permission to continue. She ignored the gesture. "What did Lana mean when she said that you were trying to destroy the world? And don't give me any of your 'deny, deny, deny' bullshit, because I know it has some basis in truth," she said, tired of the ring around they were so accustomed to going through.

His jaw tightened and he crossed his arms to his chest, body language screaming hostility. He was a textbook male and that was when she knew that he was actually going to level with her, she could read his indicators like a book and she was coming to realize that she must be one of the only people on the planet capable of this. When he was calm, composed and in his typical pacifying mode he was just an actor playing a part. When he was agitated and impatient it was more likely that he was going to tell the truth, or at least lie slightly less.

"Her ridiculously dramatic statement isn't entirely without merit," he admitted with painful reluctance. "While I am by no means…I am not trying to bring about Armageddon, it just wouldn't play out well for me in the history books. You know me, Chloe, arguably better than anyone else, when your pride doesn't get in the way. Do you really think I want my name associated with the end of the free world?" He asked, and though it was obviously a rhetoric question it was still food for thought. He was right, annoyingly so, but right nonetheless. His ego was far too inflated to risk forever being marked as the Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler of this age.

But that wasn't going to satisfy her. "You didn't answer my question."

He knew she was going to object to his abject evasiveness, but her focus irritated him nonetheless. "I was going to get to that." Sure he was. "I may…business dealings and politics between the United States and other nations have been going on that some may consider to be…risky." That was a whole lot of nothing wrapped up in a web of articulacy.

"Why don't you try actually answering the question instead of tap dancing around it like Gene Kelly?" She suggested cheerfully.

He cast her a dark look but abided nonetheless. "We are negotiating with North Korea and other countries that have somewhat tarnished reputations. But by excluding them we would only be perpetuating a negative stereotype…" Ah, the joy of rationalizations. It was so easy to divorce oneself from the repercussions of one's actions when there were excuses galore.

Chloe cut straight through his words. "You're cahooting with enemies?" She knew it was a question, but hoped he didn't realize.

"That's not...cahooting? Is that even a word?" he asked, genuinely perplexed.

She shrugged. "Well, 'in cahoots,' to cahoot, cahooting, I guess it's not a real word but you know what I mean. You must have had this set up for years, I mean someone gave Lana that paper and warned her about your...evil intentions well before you were elected." She was careful not to make this into a question.

He tilted his head sideways. "Yes, it's been in the works for a very long time," he admitted, knowing there was nothing to gain by lying. "Sometimes...in politics, certain groups of people will throw their lot in with yours, premeditating where public favor will go in a few years. I owe it to my backers to support them and their interests, and in order to do so I, as you so eloquently put it, 'cahoot' with some...slight undesirables." She could read between the lines: he owed it to his unnamed benefactors to negotiate with known terrorist organizations and dangerous countries to protect the interests and investments of others instead of operating in the interest of the country.

"So it's not just your _negotiations_," she hypothesized aloud, "it's the people you associate with. They aren't good people." She was certain that this was a drastic understatement but she didn't want to put him on the defensive. He was working for people who most definitely did not have the United States' best interests in mind.

From being a part of the media for so many years in her career that she knew who these types of mysterious 'benefactors' were. They were all fine and good when things were going well, several politicians met their downfall when they fell out of their favor or were caught doing the bidding of those who funded them.

Lex had power and connections in the business world, but politics was a completely different ball game. He had more than enough money to fund his campaign, but without the backing of prominent politicians he couldn't have made it very far. He needed to establish a reputation and a foothold in politics in order to be respected and taken seriously. She knew that he must have owed some allegiance, but it was such a behind the scenes exchange that she never fully guessed what it meant.

Despite the fact that Lex was in one of the most powerful positions on the planet he still answered to those who helped him climb to the top.

He shrugged. "I won't deny that." She couldn't help but wonder who they were and what they did that make even Lex loath to cross them. But she had run out of questions.

"Have I answered satisfactorily?"

"To the best of your ability." She revised to his consternation and amusement.

"You do know that you're fresh out of questions, right?" She had just been pondering this very fact.

"I'm well aware of that." Her voice had more than a touch of frost.

He crossed his arms against his chest. "You benefited from a lucky coincidence that I'm incapable of sating my curiosity when it comes to you."

"Well, I'll take it just the same. I don't know how honest you really were, but it's nice to get some information for once," she said honestly. She was disturbed by how easy it was to converse with him with something horrifyingly akin to familiarity.

How could she continue to talk with him as though he were a friend all the while knowing that he had someone killed? His denial was as good as a confirmation. What angered her further was the fact that she wouldn't feel right tossing him out the door like a used pile of laundry as soon as she got what she wanted.

She wanted to be capable of professionally obtaining information and remaining separated from the source. She had worked as a journalist for a decade, she had always been able to separate herself from her work, but Lex always seemed to be an anomoly. She was still reeling from his admissions but she felt frustrated by her shortcomings.

He smiled roguishly, rising to his feet. "And I'm always more than happy to kiss you. I can hardly believe it, but it's better than I remember." He stepped forward, for a moment uncharacteristically hesitant.

She wished that she could tell him that the sentiment was not reciprocated, but her heart leapt into her throat when she thought of it. He had kissed her like his life depended on it, and she hadn't exactly held back either.

"We have a close eye on you," he warned, the playful twinkle extinguished from his eye. He actually looked concerned, and that didn't bode well for her.

She nodded. "I know." That wouldn't change anything, _this _wouldn't change anything. No matter what she felt physically, she knew that remaining in close proximity with Lex was very dangerous. "And who are 'we', exactly?" She asked hopelessly, knowing that she had run out of questions.

He surprised her by answering. "You know, advisors, supporters and the like. But you'd be wise to remember that this organization is like a clock, and I'm only one cog. Some of your..._dissent _had already put you on the radar. Be careful," he said so genuinely that she couldn't scoff it off. And she had the distinct feeling that he was understating it, that he was only willing to warn her about the tip of the iceberg without wanting to delve into the true danger and this scared her more than anything else.

She knew that he wasn't adverse to using any means at his disposal to manipulate her into complying with his wishes, and if he wasn't telling her the full scope of danger it was because he knew that it wouldn't serve himself. Chloe was in danger, and she didn't even understand the extent of it. She should have been more afraid, but being in such a close vicinity to Lex made her a little too fired up.

Lex turned to leave reluctantly but she spoke before he was out the door. "And don't bother trying to bug my apartment anymore. Clark can find them." Oh, the pride before the fall but she was feeling giddy on an excess of hormones and information.

That stopped him in his tracks. "Good," he said slowly. "If I had to hear you with him one more time I'd rip his lungs out."

She laughed, only because she didn't know how else to react to such a serious proclamation. "If I asked you to sleep with me in exchange for information, would you have acquiesced?" he asked, a teasing edge to his tone. But she knew that he was one-hundred percent serious.

The mere thought made her break out in a cold sweat. She was glad that there was distance between the two of them, because her libido was hopping up and down faster than a Mexican jumping bean.

"No, definitely not. Engaging in a sexual act for some kind of payment? I'm not a hooker and I'm not crazy." She said with a deliberately steady voice. And she had to admit, even as a prostitute she would have reservations about getting involved with Lex.

He quirked an eyebrow and shrugged. "It was worth asking."

She smiled unsteadily. "No, it really wasn't." Lex knew that she would never have agreed to such a compromise, but he delighted in shocking her. He walked out the door and closed it behind him. She was immensely annoyed with herself and she shifted in her chair. She felt a flush of heat as she thought about his lips against hers, his body pressing up against her. It was difficult to focus and impossible to get him off of her mind.

What was wrong with her? He was a dangerous, villainous murderer who was an active traitor against the country he was supposed to be serving. But God as her witness, the fire between the two of them had never waned, let alone been extinguished. It was easier to forget how good it felt to touch him when there was time and distance separating them. Even when they kissed those months ago it had been brief with minimal contact. Now she was on excited and she was loath to admit that Lex was the cause.

And the second Chloe came home, she jumped Clark.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Oh, sweet pillow talk. Some couples discussed their days at work, their plans for the future or what was on TV that night. But no, Clark and Chloe spent their post-coital hours discussing their strategy on how to flee the country. Who was to decide what 'normal' was, anyway?

They laid next to each other, clothes strewn around her bedroom. They had barely made it to the bed and though she would never admit to it, being with Clark hadn't silenced the pervasive thoughts of Lex.

She divulged the information about the paper retrieved in her and Lex's 'session' and while he pursed his lips slightly, he didn't otherwise react when she revealed the terms. "I tried to call you...but you know how he can be."

He nodded tersely. "Yeah, I know."

She was quick to change the subject and he seemed relieved. It took a lot of effort for him to not rip the pillow he laid on into confetti. Thinking of Lex always elicited a violent response. Her face was flushed when she came home and she had a look in her eyes he didn't recognize, and his ego took a slight blow when he contemplated the idea that Lex might be responsible for that. He shifted uncomfortably, but listened nonetheless.

She was particularly happy to tell him the possible remedy to the paper problem. "The numbers were just keystrokes on a cell phone to compose a text message," she said, still sour that she hadn't thought to do that. "But it wasn't just the numbers; the numbers alone are relatively meaningless and really only a red herring but the document could be soaked in a compound that could give us a better clue as to where the hell that safety deposit box is." This evoked a frown and it took Chloe a moment to realize that Clark was insulted.

"I could go around and check every bank..." But Chloe shook her head, effectively stopping his train of thought.

"I'm sure Lex is doing that already, albeit at a significantly slower pace, and I am positive that he will have every security tape scrutinized. The last thing you need is to get caught red-handed using your powers to break into banks." He didn't look fully appeased but he shrugged nonetheless. She knew that he hated being on the sidelines and especially disliked having to thrust Chloe into danger in order to complete their agenda.

If he had his way he would stash her in Tahiti for the next few months and obtain the 'leverage' himself, but even if they lived in an alternate universe where Chloe would allow him to do that, it would still be counterproductive. She was vital to their progress, without her he wouldn't even know where to start, and he would be a fool not to employ her skills. If she was like Lana he could better justify his desire, but Chloe was a category unto herself.

"I can have my guy at the lab analyze it," he said reluctantly. He had always been adverse to involving outside parties in what he considered to be their business, and she understood where he was coming from. It was dangerous to rely on other people to handle their affairs, and she would avoid it if it was feasible. But as far as she knew, neither she nor Clark had a major in chemistry.

Chloe nodded listlessly, adjusting her position on the bed. This guy had been somewhat reliable, but in order to get the type of results they wanted in the time frame they wanted them Clark would need to grease his palm. "Do you need some bribe money?" she asked so calmly that he burst into a quick fit of laughter.

He shook his head decidedly. "No, I've got it, Chlo." He assured her, rising from the bed reluctantly and pulling a pair of boxers on. "What else did you ask him about?"

Clark was trying to sound unassuming, but she could hear the burning curiosity smoldering in his voice. "Randall, I'm pretty sure he killed him." She felt a jolt of inexplicable grief and bit her lip to stop herself from reacting. Chloe tried to speak matter-of-factly but she couldn't help but feel a bit bleary eyed now that she knew for certain that he was dead. Why did she care so much about the loss of such a man?

He nodded listlessly, unsurprised. Clark was able to look at the situation objectively and he knew that the death of Dr. Randall was inevitable, and Chloe couldn't claim such certainty. She knew what Lex was capable of, but she never wanted an example of his cruelty to be so definitely set before her.

"What was the third question you had to fight so hard for?" He attempted to act as though this was a teasing comment, but she knew that he was jealous and insecure and couldn't blame him. He had been handling himself remarkably well, and she knew that if she were to be in the same situation she could not have behaved with such decorum. The idea of Lana coming back and throwing herself at him shamelessly made her stomach tighten and jaw clench, and he didn't even love her anymore.

Chloe blinked; surprised that she hadn't mentioned this one first. In the scheme of things, Lex's affiliation with certain undesirables was the most dangerous and relevant to them. Perhaps it was the fact that Randall and the mystery paper had been on their minds so frequently as of late, but her rationalization didn't satisfy her. She explained, peering at Clark and trying to ascertain exactly what it was he was thinking. She instantly realized that he was disturbed and this didn't bode well for her.

Clark knew how she felt, she was careful to not keep her feelings from him when relevant, but she certainly didn't broadcast her tangible attraction. If she was normal, such certainty of Lex's immorality would lessen the intensity of her feelings for him. Unfortunately she was crazy.

"He's a fool," he muttered, sinking back onto the bed as Chloe rose.

"What're you thinking?" She was curious and wary. She wasn't sure she wanted to know exactly what this meant, but it was clear that the stakes were higher than she had known...or hoped.

"He's more than willing to negotiate with terrorist organizations and his hands are so tied that he can't stop the inevitable." Clark didn't edit to keep her from worrying, and she felt a wave of admiration for him strike her suddenly as she wrapped herself in her fuzzy robe.

He had changed so much over the years that it was strange and illuminating to compare present and past Clark. Before he was prone to work on his own, giving into the hero complex on a weekly basis and hiding his true identity in order to 'protect' her and the others close to him. Over the years he had become a well-adjusted man who was able to recognize that it was more useful to involve her in the process and he realized that it was useless to edit or lie for her benefit.

"You think he'll try to cover up any attempt at infiltration to protect these people?" she hazarded a guess and he dipped his head.

"I really don't know." And that worried him more than anything else. "It's dangerous, pledging allegiance to people who are willing to give you a boost in the right direction. I suppose it could be like blackmail, I doubt they are ever satisfied and I'm certain that they feel as though he's indebted to them and have no qualms about calling in favors." He knew people like that, or had known them. It was a technique employed by everyone from the mafia to high school principals, a power play that worked wonders.

Chloe sighed. "Yeah, both of us have researched and written about people caught in that web. I'd say that we should use it to our advantage, but people like that aren't the type that you want to piss off." Clark nodded emphatically in agreement.

"Yeah, we don't want to get involved in all that, but it's definitely not good. We need to leave soon."

Chloe felt the familiar pang of fear. "When we figure out this stupid piece of paper thingy we can go. Fleeing without leverage would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. He needs a reason to let us go." But of course she meant let _her _go.

Clark nodded slowly, but he wasn't happy about it. "Chlo, do you think…" he stopped for a moment, trying to figure out exactly how to compose his thoughts. "Am I selfish to do this?" he asked abruptly. "I mean...we know that Lex is more concerned with saving himself than helping the country. Is it wrong for me to just up and leave?"

She wasn't surprised by the question. The burden of the hero-syndrome was heavy, and she would never be able to grasp to gravity of the situation. Chloe fought her instinct to answer immediately and quell his fears with timely assurances. She forced herself to think for a moment before even beginning to respond.

"No, I don't. This doesn't mean you won't come back, you fly off to different countries all the time. I think it's pretty necessary and if I know you at all you'll come to help if…_when_ they need you." Even if those jerks didn't deserve it. How would they feel when he was gone? Would people still try to snipe him with various forms of weaponry then? Things were going to look a whole lot different when Clark was forced to shift his focus out of the US. Would they be sorry then?

He seemed satisfied, but still troubled. "What do you want to do for the rest of your life?" he asked, and she jumped up in surprise.

To be quite honest, she hadn't thought much beyond their escape and his sudden interest in the future blind sided her. "Uh, I don't know," she said honestly.

Clark sank back onto her bed, pulling the covers up to his chin. "Where do you see...you in five years?" he asked. She didn't understand where he was coming from, he had sprung on her from out of left field.

She answered spontaneously. "Um, alive? On the lam? With you." That last one wasn't hypothetical.

He turned to look her square in the eyes and she was shocked by the intensity in his eyes. "Are you sure?"

Where the hell was this coming from? "Yes."

"What about..." he stuttered and she was completely confused. "We're thirty." No shit Sherlock.

She didn't think that required a response, and he plowed on. "You're, you, you're human." She nodded, eyebrows halfway up her forehead. "Do you want kids?" he sputtered, and she couldn't have been more surprised if he slapped her.

"Yeah," she answered immediately, not realizing that it was in fact what she wanted until the words were out of her mouth. They sat in silence for a moment, both looking at each other with expressions of extreme confusion painted across their faces.

He finally nodded, visibly deflated. "Oh."

"Oh?"

Clark's face creased in pain. "I...don't know if I can do that. Physically, I mean. There haven't been...studies, or anything but...I don't know if it's possible."

She furrowed her eyebrow. So that was what this was about. "Do you want...kids?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think I do. But I don't know...I'm not sure that's possible with me." She settled next to him, scooting over a bit before pressing her cheek against his chest. She really never had the time to dedicate to actively thinking about the future. Throughout the course of her life Chloe really only had three long term relationships, first with Jimmy, but that didn't even compare to what she shared with Lex. When they were together...she thought about her future, _their _future and children were an unspoken part of that picture.

Part of the many things that attracted her to Clark were strong qualities that would be ideal for passing onto a second generation, but she had never been afflicted with baby fever. She never thought of herself as a mother but when asked so straightforwardly she was forced to assess her own goals. "That doesn't matter," she said, only to realize that it did a little.

They sat in silence and not knowing what else to do at a time like this, she kissed him. He was under the blankets and she was over them, and her furry white bathrobe tickled his chest. They were in a war that no one declared and they had no idea who was going to win in the end, they just needed to do what they could with the time they were given. "Are you going to see your man tonight?" she asked when it was clear that he had nothing left to say.

He cast her a sarcastic look. "Does that entail getting out of bed?" She nodded. "Then I'm not interested." He wanted to prolong their time together as much as humanly possible, and despite the dangers of waiting he was willing to take that risk tonight.

Chloe pulled away from him, and when he opened his mouth to object she simply discarded her robe and slid under the covers with him. He stared at her for a moment and the hunger in his eyes was immensely flattering. "Well then, I'm not going to do work while you're just laying around," she said, feigning huffiness.

She pressed herself against him for time number two and he responded enthusiastically, pressing his mouth to hers as they slipped into another night with each other. She made a conscious attempt to stay focused, but despite her best efforts Chloe was plagued with thoughts of Lex throughout the night.

**Please tell me what you think!**


	34. Til Death

**I'm glad you guys enjoyed last chapter, I hope you like this one too! I can see the finish line in my mind, and I'm not sure exactly how many more chapters I have in store but I'll keep you updated. Tell me what you think!**

Clark stepped out of Symone's office looking much like a shell-shocked soldier fresh from battle. He was still cringing from the verbal lashing she had laid down upon him; Symone had been threatening him with the religion beat for months and she had finally followed through. A year ago he would have been outraged, but it was hard to avoid apathy when he knew that in a few weeks time he would be gone.

Symone had ranted and raved per usual, hair sticking out at odd angles, flailing her limbs comically. "What the hell are you doing with your time, Kent? You don't have another job and yet you barely even bother to grace us with your presence. Sullivan's been gone for months, quit moping." And with that charming sentiment she had tossed him out, still reeling in the hallway.

It was growing increasingly difficult to focus on anything during the passing weeks. He had quietly communicated with Martha, subtley informing her of their intentions. With each day that went by he grew more and more restless and fearful of discovery, and it was showing. Over the years Clark had perfected his facade, able to avoid scrutiny by becoming an unassuming fixture in the background but it wasn't just his life and liberties that were at stake. If it were he could easily maintain his composure, but not when Chloe was involved. He barely had time to compose himself when he heard a familiar voice.

"Smallville!" Lois called out, flagging him down as though he were incapable of recognizing her voice. He rolled his eyes teasingly and headed toward her. She was lingering outside of her brand spanking new office...well, Chloe's former office. "Some guy, Rick something-or-other, called looking for you. Says he has some...results? I dunno, I thought you were doing a piece on the bicentennial of St. Agatha's." His stomach did a small flip and a wave of relief washed over him. It had been nearly three weeks with no word, and both he and Clark were getting antsy.

He nodded. "I am, it's just follow up. Thanks, Lois." He moved to walk away, but she stopped him.

"So...I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this, but how's Chloe?" She shifted her feet and leaned against the back wall, clearly uncomfortable. Clark felt a pang of sympathy for her.

"She's pretty good, considering. It's been an adjustment."

He wondered how she would react if he told her the truth. Chloe was alright, considering the fact that she was in love with both an alien vigilante and the President of the United States who happened to be part of a sinister organization more focused on staying ahead of the curve than helping the US prosper. She was planning on finding dirt on said President in order to flee the country and escape his aggressive pursuit with her current boyfriend was acting as her ally despite the fact that he knew how she felt about the evil dictator.

Lois noded, crossing her arms against her chest. "Yeah, I bet. She's been a little distant. Do you know why?" Only she could be so blunt about something so sensitive.

"No...well, _Lex_," he admitted, deciding to take the path less traveled and be honest to Lois.

She didn't look surprised. "It always is, isn't it?" she sighed tiredly, tugging on her sleeve. He knew that she was trying to commiserate with him, but it felt like an arrow to the gut nonetheless. He didn't need any more reminders of her regard for Lex, he couldn't forget if he tried. He tried to curb his jealousy, but it was incredibly difficult. Every time he touched her he was afraid that she was thinking of _him, _even though he knew how ridiculous it was he couldn't get it out of his head.

Clark wasn't normally prone to violence, even when he was saving the day from nefarious foes and bank robbers brutality was just a way to subdue them. He didn't harbor any resentment or desire to rough them up more then necessary, but when it came to Lex...he didn't even want to think about it. It felt an almost inhuman surge of rage toward him, and that loss of control terrified him.

"I'll ask her to call you," he promised, inching away. He knew that Chloe was having a difficult time separated herself from Lois, but insisted it was for the best. When they left...she didn't want her to be left high and dry, withdrawing before the fact would make it slightly less unbearable. "Can I use your phone?" She shrugged and gestured toward her office with a blinding smile.

"Help yourself." She had bit and clawed her way past the competition, elbowing quite a few of them in the face in order to score her cousin's office and she couldn't be prouder. Lois gave him his privacy and he contacted Rick the scientist...well, the grad student with a degree in chemistry who was strapped for cash and willing to pimp his expertise out for a couple hundred bucks.

Clark was guarded on the phone, agreeing to meet but on edge with paranoia. Chloe's fears were pertinent and catching, and Clark couldn't help but feel hopeful when he heard Rick's confusion. _He found something_.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

It was a normal day in the office, and as usual Chloe was left to her own devices with minimal interference from her alleged 'supervisors.' For people who were supposed to be her overseers, they certainly didn't oversee very often. Her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose and nearly tippled off before she caught them with one hand, the other still pecking at the keyboard. The phone rang and she lifted it to her ear but before she could offer the customary greeting she was accosted from behind.

It was an assault. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, rotating her swivel chair and pushing her hard against the back of her swivel chair with no room to struggle. She hadn't even heard him come in, but here he was...pretty much on top of her. Lex clamped one hand over her right wrist, pinning her to the chair while the other was occupied with the telephone. _Oh crap_.

She was seeing stars and, per usual, her brain matter turned to putty as her heart rattled in her chest like a spasmodic bird as he pressed his body to hers. She positioned her feet firmly on the ground and launched herself backward, wheeling out of his grasp only to be yanked forward by some foreign object.

Her right arm propelled her back toward him, nearly dislocating her shoulder in the process. "What the hell?" She looked down at her arm. "Mother fucker," she muttered, surprising herself with her own vulgarity. Lex had oh so surreptitiously attached her to her titanium steel desk with a pair of kinky looking handcuffs.

Lex tucked his cell phone into his jacket pocket, the call had been a ploy to sufficiently distract her...and it had succeeded.

"You have got to be kidding me." His expression of immensely smug satisfaction said otherwise. She wracked her brain for some reason behind his uncalled for attack, but came up empty. She and Clark had been careful to keep everything relatively normal the last few weeks, not wanting to do anything to cause more scrutiny to fall upon them. She had asked him if he had been the one to break into Luthor Corp and he had been confused enough to confirm her suspicion that he had nothing to do with it. The only thing that she could think of was that damned paper...but what could he know about it? Her rationalization didn't stop her heart from jumping up a notch.

"Sorry," he didn't look it, "but I can't have you running off."

She jumped to her feet, an action that would have been much more impressive had she not been attached to the furniture. "This is false imprisonment, by the way."

He laughed, not a little chuckle or a slight giggle, but he was immersed in a full blown fit. She looked absolutely ridiculous and was well aware of it, but that didn't stop her from resenting his laughter. "Ha, yes, I suppose it is. But that's really the least of my troubles." He leaned forward to try and lock lips once again but she slapped him with her free hand.

"You are an evil, manipulative bastard…" She groped at her desk, shuffling the loose papers and searching for some form of weaponry. "And I'm going to kill you..." Chloe grabbed a stapler and raised it threateningly.

He smiled and stepped out of her reach. "Assassination by stapler, that'd be a first," he said cheerfully, and if Chloe was more confident in her aiming abilities she would have thrown her crude weapon straight at his shiny head.

Chloe extended her leg as far as it would reach, kicking him square in the knee and sending him tumbling onto the carpet. She tried to spear him with her heel, but he succeeded in deflecting it at the last moment.

"A little feisty today, aren't we?" he gasped, clambering to his feet only to have her bowl him over with her swivel chair. He landed hard and laughed, laying back on the floor and looking up at Chloe with such intense admiration that she had to look away. She never fully understood how even when she was trying to kill him, he could still look at her like she was the most wonderful thing in the world.

"A lot of feisty everyday." She corrected, stone faced and infuriated. "Where is the key?" It just struck her as ironic that her current predicament mirrored the movie they discussed all too frequently.

He shook his head and breathed in deep. "No, sorry, I can't." Oh, he could, but he just wouldn't. He was immensely lucky that he had moved out of her reach because she would've strangled him one handed given the opportunity. He laughed as she swatted at him furiously, and that did nothing to cool her anger.

"First you sexually assault me, then you handcuff me to my desk? Are you trying to create a scandal?" she snarled, attacking him the only way she knew would be effective.

He shrugged tiredly, a very un-Presidential thing to do. He rubbed his eyes in exhaustion and sighed. She wondered errantly how many sleepless nights he had suffered, but didn't dwell on it. "You won't report me without proof, and I know what you've been doing," he said, pacing back and forth like the villain he was.

Chloe sunk to the floor, tucking her free arm under her bust. She felt stupid with one arm dangling flaccidly, but her fury kept her from appearing ridiculous. "What exactly do you 'know' this time, Lex?" She was trying for sarcastic, but she felt a jolt of fear. He had more resources at his disposal than she could even imagine, and it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that he had discovered something she would have rather kept secret.

He turned slightly away from her to conceal his expression, but not quickly enough. He was _afraid_, and this was the last emotion she had expected him to experience, and his fear made her uneasy. His hubris was one of his more prominent flaws and usually he loved to flaunt his knowledge, especially when engaged in a battle of the wits between one of the few people on this earth he deemed worthy, and it was unusual for him to be so nervous when he should be thriving.

When he turned to face her he had carefully wiped away any trace of anxiety and had strategically replaced it with strained smugness, but she could see through the mask. It was only then that she really grasped the gravity of the situation, when he couldn't even properly enjoy dangling vital information over her head. _What the hell is going on?_ "When are you finally going to realize that _nothing _you do is private?" he asked, relishing the moment.

She furrowed her brow, confusion overpowering fury. "I've always known that. Since you've been elected I've even been using my e-mail with discretion. Is this another case of you jumping the gun?" She always could play him like a piano.

He shook his head gravely, falling straight into the trap. "No, the problem with always having the same partner in crime is that there is bound to be some...redundancies. You should've known better than that." He snapped, eyes shooting toward her with something akin to anxiety. "You and Clark tried to pull one over on _me?_ That really wasn't your smartest move, Chloe."

She kept her face impassive. Chloe wasn't sure what he knew or if he was just fishing for information, but she wasn't about to tip her hand. "What are you accusing me of?"

He fixed his gaze on her. "The scientist? Clark has been using him for long enough to establish a pattern. Did he even think of that?" he said, more to himself than to her. He immensely enjoyed blaming Clark for any problems or hiccups in his life or Chloe's, he was a very convenient scapegoat.

Chloe restrained herself from smiling. She knew him all too well, he knew that something was up but he had no idea the scope of what was going on. If he were trying to manipulate anyone else his ploy would have worked, but he picked the wrong mark. He was hoping that she would reveal the rest for him and she had no intention of revealing what they had employed the scientist for. Rick was appropriately terrified of Clark and he was paid well enough that she was relatively certain that he wouldn't bend or break. If he had, in any case, Lex would have employed another method of interrogation.

"What are you talking about?" she asked sweetly. He saw the expression of satisfaction in her eyes and knew that the jig was up.

Lex shook his head. "I don't know exactly what you did or how you did it, but _I know that you are up to something_." They seemed to constantly be engaged in a battle of wits, and he was growing weary of it. This time he wanted answers, and he was afraid that if he didn't get them first his anxious benefactors would beat him to the punch. And they would not be so kind.

She had a flash of fear and worry, wondering how he caught them, but wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of admitting to it. "Don't you think tying me up is a little rash?"

He nodded passively, not bothering to defend his course of action. "It's a temporary solution to a permanent problem."

Her eyebrows shot up. "What are you going to do, chain me to the wall in the oval office?" There was a trace of hysteria she didn't want to acknowledge.

"Don't tempt me." Oh joy, another double entendre.

"So, what's your plan?" She hoped that his ego would compel him to regale her with tales of his brilliancy. With his lack of morals and hair, he reminded her more and more of a James Bond villain.

This provoked an unexpected reaction. His confidence faltered before he spoke. "I don't have one." He admitted. "I just...I don't want you to get hurt." His sincerity scared her but Chloe wasn't going to allow it to derail her. She hadn't seen him like this since the night they broke up...ha, the phrase sounded so pitiful, so inconsequential. She couldn't even think up an expression for what it was the two of them did to each other, and that was the only other time he had felt so wholly and completely out of control. But he wasn't supposed to be helpless he was the President! If any career fit Lex's desire to constantly and consistently be a figure of undeniable power, it was his current position as Head of State.

"And why would I get hurt? And how exactly would trapping me defenseless in my office be an act of protection?" But her anger had dwindled and was replaced with confusion and fear. For Chloe, his nervousness was not conducive to calm. He had always been able to maintain a facade of professionalism and now that it was splintering she had no idea how to handle it.

He paced, cracking his knuckles. She hadn't realized how weary he looked, or perhaps she dismissed the observation as a symptom of the stress that accompanied his job. Occupational hazard.

"You just, you never think!" He exploded, hands flying in the air furiously. "You really think I'm just the puppet master an everyone else is just...a pawn at my mercy? I know it's easier to peg me as the ultimate villain rather than seeing the whole picture. I'm powerful, I'm not going to deny that." Like he ever would. "There are much bigger things at work."

"Such as?" She tried to keep her emotions in check, too much curiosity would raise his awareness and possibly result in censure.

Her fear appeared to be without merit, because Lex seemed to have disregarded his prior attempts at playing coy. There was no time for games now. He stared at her, eyes fixed on her face. "I don't work alone. I'm...I am the face of the government, a figurehead, but to entertain the ridiculous notion that I am this ultimate power is absurd."

She was surprised that he was willing to admit his limitations and by the extent of which his alleged colleagues dictated his decisions. It unnerved her that he was willing to put aside his pride and admit that others influenced him and possibly limited his power. Lex was not the type to work with others.

Chloe furrowed her brow. "Who exactly are you working with? I didn't realize that the President had coworkers apart from his cabinet." And she knew that he wouldn't divulge anything potentially damaging to them. His Vice President, Secretary of State and the rest of his little brigade were his 'yes' people as opposed to his respected peers.

He ignored the question, as he always did when inconvenient. "I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you...but others are growing tired of your impertinence. My _colleagues," _He spat the word out like it was a curse, "are as aware of your actions as I am, but they're not quite so willing to forgive."

She gaped at him, trying and failing to remain objective. He was right, obnoxiously so, but right nonetheless. She rarely thought about the nameless, faceless others that backed Lex and supported his unscrupulous methods. He admitted that they were the ones he owed fealty to, the ones' who's interest he protected and yet she never really figured them into the equation. And where would she play into all of this?

She was a blight on his past, someone who knew more about him than any backer could feel comfortable with. She was an obstacle, and she never considered the fact that the only thing that stood in the way of her sharing a hole with Jimmy Hoffa was Lex.

He stepped forward, a plethora of emotions splayed on his face like a rainbow of colors on a canvas. "I can protect you...I can help you. But you have to let me. You can't keep doing this, digging, searching for Dr. Randall, asking questions. The first article you wrote against me infuriated them after they realized who you were. "

"Who are they?"

He ignored her. "I took you away from the paper, made you write a piece on me to neutralize the threat but YOUR actions brought you back to their attention." He pointed a shaking finger at her, anger and fear vying for domination in his voice. "They..._we_ were terrified that you would do something, unearth something, start a trial, ruin everything. Even slight scrutiny...the slightest suspicion of wrongdoing could affect my colleagues' ability to work effectively." He was still pacing, and Chloe felt a growing sense of trepidition begin to consume her.

And Lex wasn't done. "And damn it, why won't you listen? Why do you continually buck authority? You would be dead, if I didn't stop it," he said ruthlessly, though she had already come to that terrifying conclusion.

"Who are they?" she repeated, fear making her voice quiver.

He looked at her wildly and threw his hands in the air again. "_They? _God, this sounds like a conspiracy theory. You're jaded enough to know that there are people on the upper-crust and underbelly who work outside the constraints of the law in order to enforce it. It's hypocrisy, it's madness but it's _truth!_" He didn't answer her question, but the expression of rage and intense worry stopped her from pressing the matter.

"I want to help you, but you and that...bastard Clark just won't quit, will you?" He meant it to be more of a statement than a question but she responded nonetheless.

"No, we won't. What, did you expect anything else? I...I don't want to play these games anymore." She tried to gesture, but found her efforts impeded by her current state of imprisonment. "Will they, whoever _they _are, try to kill me?"

He nodded curtly. "Yes, and it's likely that it will be a success. I know how it sounds, but all I want is to protect you from all of this but I can't do it forever." And from the pained expression on his face, this frustrated him more than anything.

She tried to take this in stride, but it was more difficult than she would have liked. Hearing that some ominous group of people were very desirous of ending her life was not conducive to calm, especially since it seemed so very ridiculous, like some sort of espionage thriller. It was incredibly difficult to swallow the idea that a group of corrupt politicians wanted to kill her just because she didn't subscribe to the "I Love President Luthor" newsletter and that her suspicion of Lex and his policies meritted assasination.

For a moment, and for the sake of her sanity, she entertained the notion that this was just another trick of his, that he was repaying her deception for one of his own, despite the fact that he didn't quite know the depth of hers. It would be the ultimate revenge, filling her already suspicious mind with a perfect conspiracy theory. But as she looked at his haggardness and the stress that was clear on every line of his face, she knew that it was true, that it wasn't an act. She was certain he was concealing a lot, maybe even the majority of the information, but he was leveling with her and that wasn't without merit.

"And Clark?" She asked, attempting to conceal her concern but he saw right through her, per usual.

He gritted his teeth, despising the fact that she seemed to care more about what happened to him than she did about her own well being. He hated that she was with him and that she was so capable of being happy with him, it destroyed an illusion he would have much preferred keeping in tact. It was easy to delude himself, think that after all these years since she had no meaningful relationships she was only able to romantically coexist with him and him alone...but Clark had always been an obnoxious anomaly.

"His identity is thus far unknown to any others outside of myself, but the lore of Superman is of general concern amongst my circle," he said, cold and trying to be supremely indifferent. She could hear the underlying jealousy despite his best efforts to conceal it. "No one wants him to continue to act outside the law, it casts aspersions on the US judicial system and America's ability to control abnormal citizens from dispensing vigilante justice. He's bad for morale." He concluded. _I'm certain that has nothing to do with your prejudices..._she thought to herself, but she couldn't ignore the niggling little detail that after seven years he hadn't divulged Clark's identity to anyone else.

"And what is it that you think I should do about this?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know, but knew that it was necessary. It seemed that over the past few months

He quit pacing and looked at her intently, as though there was only one obvious solution to the problem. "Marry me."

**Tell me what you think!**


	35. We Will Part

**Thanks so much for your reviews and insights, I really appreciate the feedback and it helps a lot :)**

If Chloe had been standing she would have collapsed. "What was that?"

He started making his rounds around the room once again. "You heard me."

Chloe cocked her head to the side, feeling hysteria edging into her voice. "Are you kidding?" His expression said otherwise, so she edited. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Chloe was chock full of questions today.

"Nothing. It's a solution to the problem." He responded coolly.

Chloe gaped for a moment before mustering the brain power to form an intelligent sentence. "You are absolutely insane. There is no way I would ever in a million bazillion years marry you, unless you performed a partial lobotomy beforehand." Well, it wasn't really an _intelligent_ statement, but at least it was _intelligible_.

He exhaled loudly, careful to avert his eyes as he reset the toppled chair. "The main concern is that you will reveal unsavory information that will cast a pall over the administration or possibly be asked...or as I would prefer it _forced _to testify in a criminal trial. Even so much as a whisper of these sensationalized rumors--" Chloe rolled her eyes, "and this will seriously restrict the movements and the freedom of the individuals, both in the political scene and not. This would be the best way to ensure that they are satisfied."

Chloe didn't know how to feel or what to say. She didn't know whether intense anger or fear was the more dominant emotion, but the one think she was certain of was that no part of her was tempted by his offer...well, no significant part. There was still that very irritating portion of her that was still prone to nostalgia, thinking about how it _would_ have been all those years ago. "And I'm sure none of this has anything to do with you getting what you want," she retorted, voice deadly and acidic.

He concealed a smile. "It's certainly not a disagreeable solution to me, though I would prefer another avenue, if one was open. I've been issued an ultimatum," he said, distaste clear in the tone of his voice. He hated being forced to do anything, especially something that could cause harm to Chloe.

"Is that what this is? An ultimatum? Skip on down to city hall or wind up dead? It's not much of an option, if you ask me. Do 'they' really think that, if I wanted to ruin you, husband/wife privilege would be an effective gag?"

He sighed, throwing his hands up tensely. "I don't know, I don't know! It's the only thing I can think of...at least it will slow them down and stop them from acting. And as First Lady you would be in every sense untouchable. They wouldn't dare to harm you if you were such a public spectacle, it would cause more problems than it would solve."

His pessimism was catching, but she tried her best not to be overwhelmed by the desperation in his voice. She still nurtured a hope that all of this was an act, a way to get her to comply and behave but she couldn't be sure. Actually, she was pretty sure that he was telling the truth, but for the sake of her mental health she was skeptical. He was a fantastic actor...but she had always been able to see through that facade flawlessly and now she feared that there was nothing to see through.

"What if I just...left the country?" she suggested, wincing as the words tumbled out of her mouth. She didn't want him to know the scope of her plan, but there was no other alternative she could think of. Secrecy was such an important part of their plot, but without revealing some details she had no hope of getting out of this office. He would lock her up for as long as was legally possible in a harebrained attempt to help her.

Lex's eyebrows jumped and his arms dropped. "What? Where would you go?" He wasn't surprised by the suggestion, of course he had thought of it himself but he instantly dismissed it. He wasn't willing to give her up, not for anything. He briefly entertained the notion but for the sake of his mental well-being he didn't dwell on it. Just as she had a blind spot when it came to Lex, he nurtured a similar impairment. Despite his intelligence, whenever Chloe was involved it was harder to see the full picture.

"Somewhere out of the way." He staggered backward, reeling from the certainty in her voice.

"Alone?" His jaw tightened and a tendon cracked.

She shook her head, but didn't speak. "Him?" His voice was accusatory and the jealousy insurmountable in the single syllable he uttered. She nodded, almost forgetting that she was attached to her desk.

"All I want, all _we _want, Lex, is to get away. I'm selfish and I know I should care more about the fate of humanity or whatever the hell it is than saving my ass...and Clark's," she added, hoping that it sounded like an afterthought instead of what it was; her primary concern. "But I don't. I want you to stay out of our lives, we'll leave. That's all we want, I'm not going to take you down, though I'd love to," perhaps it wasn't wise to throw this little tidbit in there but when the floodgates were open it was hard to hold back. "I've asked you before, but now I'm begging you. Let me go, let us go, and nothing needs to happen."

He studied her face, expression inscrutable. "Is there a plan of action already in place?" he asked.

She shook her head, waiting a beat before speaking. She knew what liars were prone to do and kept everything from her gestures to her facial expressions closely in check. "No, nothing. I didn't realize...I had no idea that this was going on."

Lex nodded, apparently satisfied. "Well good, because evasive maneuvers won't do anything. Going on the lam will only heighten my colleagues' already immense feeling of desperation." She looked at him and wondered how much, if any of it, was true. Would their flight exacerbate the situation, or did Lex just want to keep her by any means necessary? By any means, they couldn't stop now, now that they were so close. The pragmatist in her insisted that they would be found, but her faith in Clark strongly contested her god-given common sense.

"What can I possibly do that won't make these friends of yours try to get rid of me?"

He resumed his usual pacing, rubbing his eyebrows. His eyes cut up to hers and he grit his teeth, obviously objecting to her question. "They are no friends of mine, and I already offered a solution. All you have to do is say yes."

She rolled her eyes, tugging on her handcuffed arm ineffectually. "I can't do that."

He shook his head. "You can, but you won't."

"I _can't_." She didn't mean physically, in good conscience she could never accept this twisted proposal. This didn't make her an exceptional person, or some pinnacle of morality, perhaps it made her stupid, but nothing out of the common way. She tried to put herself in the single mindset, thinking of what she would have said if Clark was not in the picture. She was surprised by how difficult it was to separate herself from him, even mentally. Their time together and their collaboration fused them together into a single unit, more so than ever before. But she felt confident--no, _relatively_ convinced that even if she wasn't with him her answer would still be the same. While her self-preservation instincts were strong her moral compass was stronger.

"What the hell is stopping you? This isn't...isn't some trick or, or lie to try and trap you here. You have no idea what these people are capable of. If it wasn't for..." he stopped himself, and if she wasn't in a state of shock her curiosity would have been piqued. "Just say yes! You're only human, utterly and entirely breakable. _Clark," _she knew it pained him to say the name, "will survive this. Along with cockroaches he's the only living thing on this planet that would survive a nuclear holocaust," Lex muttered darkly. "But not you, it wouldn't even pose a challenge to kill you." He was trying to scare her, and it was working.

Chloe shook her head, speaking without thinking. "I don't think that's true. Clark'll make it a bit of a challenge." She laughed, a weak and sad sound. She felt years older and as though she hadn't slept in days. "And you, you're not just going to let that happen." She spoke with certainty, and the corners of his lips twitched, threatening to smile despite the severity of the conversation.

"That's true." More true than she knew, and it seemed as though she knew quite a bit. Did she have any idea the measures he went to protect her? She couldn't possibly realize...but his ego wanted him to tell her. He wanted her to know just how much she owed him, but Lex couldn't help but think of her consummate protector and how arrogantly selfless he was with her. Lex knew some of the things he did, for her and for the world at large, and even he couldn't deny how amazing _some_ of it was. And Clark rarely, if ever, revealed how much he did for Chloe. It was childish and juvenile, but he couldn't help but automatically put himself in competition with the Superman. "But, to borrow one of your favorite statements, it doesn't matter. I can slow them down for a limited time," and that time had nearly run out, "but not forever."

"How long is a limited time?" she asked, voice steady and expression strong.

Lex looked down at her, eyebrows knit together and lips turned downward. "What does it matter? You're not going anywhere." He wasn't just merely echoing her previous lie, he was ordering that she stay where she was. There was undeniable authority in his tone, but there was something wild lurking underneath it as well. He wanted to be in control, to control her, to monitor her movements and scare her away from action but he knew better than anyone else that if she had her mind set on it, threats would do no good to dissuade her.

"Well I'd like to know if I should start writing my obituary. I don't have a lot of things to give away, so a will is no problem."

His face contorted, anger and frustration splayed across his expression. "Don't be ridiculous. You know what you must to do ensure your well being."

She shook her head. "No, I know what you want me to do and I know what I'm going to do. I'll take my chances."

Lex threw his hands up in the air and stepped toward her threateningly. Big mistake. When he was close enough she did a clean sweep with her right foot, hitting his Achilles tendon and sending him tumbling to the ground once again. Would he ever learn? When he was down she didn't waste any time, wrapping her legs around him and hooking her ankles, pulling him toward her using her calf strength, lucky that he was dazed. She was too desperate to recover the key to care that their position was inherently sexual, and pawed at his jacket unabashedly. Instead of fighting, he lunged on top of her, trying to pin her free hand but she was prepared this time. Chloe contorted her leg and kneed him, sticking her hand into the folds of his jacket when he was amply distracted in a desperate hunt for the handcuff key.

He grunted in pain and kissed her, no finesse or try at gentleness attempted. She head butted him and he grabbed her legs, securing her position wrapped around him despite his recent injury. He winced in pain as she searched for the key, coming up empty. She unhitched her legs and pulled her knees together, putting some distance between them. Lex gasped in pain and pleasure and she kicked him once again, giving up her search. This punt sent him flying backward, her heel nearly puncturing his stomach.

"If you wanted me to kiss you, you could have just asked," he said, though it was clear he preferred her 'approach'.

Chloe rolled her eyes in contempt. "Where the hell's the key?" she asked, trying very hard to keep her voice even and conceal her breathlessness.

He shrugged and she kicked him again. He laughed, coming to his feet slowly and stepping away from his dangerous little firecracker. "I'm not as young as you are, Chloe, it's harder for me to bounce back from your assaults." He laughed.

"You're recovering a smidge too quickly for my tastes," she said stubbornly. "Now give me the key."

He cracked a smile, and that never boded well for her. "Oh, I didn't bring one. Didn't think it was necessary."

Chloe gaped at him, trying to ascertain whether or not he was being serious. "You've got to be kidding." Her head was spinning and her heart was going a mile a minute, but she was doing an admirable job of concealing that.

"That seems to be your phrase of the day, and no, I am not. I'm simply not going to let you go until you see reason." All that she was seeing was red.

She fought to remain calm nonetheless, knowing that she wouldn't be able to take it if he started mocking her when she inevitably exploded. "So let me get this straight...you threaten me, saying my death is inevitable and blah, blah, blah unless I marry you. But before you propose you handcuff me to my freaking desk and bore me with a monologue and _then_ refuse to unlock me until I agree to marry you?"

He stood still for a moment, mulling over her synopsis. "Well...yeah, that's pretty much correct." He was glad that their current situation allowed him to make light of the circumstances...which under any other turn of events would be no laughing matter. "Clark may be subhuman," or superhuman, depending on your bias, "he can't save you from the inevitable. _I can_." And that seemed to be his parting words as he pulled the phone jack out of the wall to make her inescapable escape attempt all the more entertaining.

"When I get out of here I'm going to rip your heart out through your throat." When all else fails, issue an empty threat. It was a mantra Chloe lived by.

He shook his head slightly and leaned toward her. It was obvious that if she hadn't had her foot extended threateningly he would have tried to kiss her again. "You've already done that, dear." And he walked out the door, leaving her stranded and handcuffed to the furniture.

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Clark began to panic when she didn't answer her phone the third time. Her work phone was emitting a steady, monotonous busy signal for the past hour and her cell was unresponsive. Chloe was nothing if not reliable when it came to telephone calls, she never screened her calls at work and always picked up when it was him. And of course most of the times he called it was for silly, unimportant things and the one time he really needed to talk to her she wasn't picking up.

He reached for the nearby stir fry pan, used this morning to cook breakfast, and put it between his hands, crushing it effortlessly. He threw the crumpled heap onto the floor furiously, not sure how else to deal with his anxiety. His natural reaction was to jump out the window and race into Luthor Corp, but he restrained himself. She had warned him against taking unnecessary risks or drawing attention to what they were doing. _She's fine, she's fine, she's completely..._he didn't realize with each phony assurance he inched closer and closer to her window. Clark had to exert a great effort to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground.

While he and Chloe didn't live together officially, he spent more nights at her place than he did at his. He hadn't been to the farm in close to a week and whenever he stayed there he did so just to give Chloe some time alone. If it was up to him, he would be with her as much as humanly possible. He had to admit, if it weren't for their current stressful predicament he would have suggested cohabitation...but only as a segue to an infinitely more permanent situation.

Clark couldn't remember when it was that he realized that he was in love with Chloe, it had come on so gradually that he hadn't known until he was totally and irrevocably stuck. In their early twenties he started to look at her in a different way, but he thought that he was too late, maybe he was just developing feelings for her now that he knew that she was over her adolescent crush on him. He felt something, pangs of jealousy unrelated to his distrust of Lex when she was with him and the beginnings of a panic attack when he thought about them being married, but it wasn't until afterward that he knew that he was beyond help.

He thought he knew what heartbreak was after all that nonsense with Lana and even Alicia, but no experience compared to how he felt when Chloe suddenly and inexplicably cut him out of her life. Clark had no idea whatsoever what had changed, one day everything was fine and the next she wasn't returning his phone calls. He saw her at work and she would nod and smile hesitantly toward him, remaining detached but friendly and rebuffing every attempt made to engage in conversation.

Clark couldn't sleep, he could barely eat and he was so upset and confused that he found himself violating his own code of ethics, following her and even stooping to spy on her. He hated that he was doing so unscrupulous, sinking to a Lex-like level without the benefit of her being in love with him. He spent more and more time out of the country, dispensing vigilante justice more often that before. He found himself taking unnecessary chances, dangerous, even, hoping that she would see him, yell at him for being so careless just...anything. Anything to talk to her again, to show that she still cared about him.

At first he thought Lex was to blame, that he had issued an ultimatum and for reasons unknown she had acquiesced...but that wasn't like her. She was strong willed to a fault and if he even tried something like that she'd have his head spinning at warp speed. It didn't take him long to realize that they had broken up, that the daily flowers she received and in turn donated were an attempt at reconciliation. He still remembered the fury in which she ripped the accompanying card to shreds, and for a few weeks after each delivery she would dissolve into tears, collapsing onto the floor of her apartment, hugging her knees to her chest and bawling intermittently. She would pull herself together and take a walk down to the hospital, vase in hand, ready to give them all away.

On a daily basis she made a phone call to one of Lex's cronies, demanding that they cease and desist with the flowers. He used his x-ray vision to see her anger and employed his super-sonic hearing to eavesdrop, despite his guilt and reservations he was concerned about her. It didn't matter if she ignored the delivery man or adamantly refused to sign for the flowers, they were always there nonetheless. Sometimes lilies, hydrangeas, white roses, orchids and always in bulk. It started with 10 dozen bouquets and she destroyed half of them before she composed herself enough to think straight. The day they finally stopped Chloe paced around her apartment, tensely awaiting the arrival with an odd mixture of dread and hope. When they never showed, she started crying. He didn't understand it any better than she did, but Clark just wanted to swoop in and rescue her.

She moved into another apartment with a doorman quickly and quietly and made certain that her number and address remained unlisted in the phone book. She knew it wouldn't be an effective deterrent, but she hated feeling powerless and needed to feel as though she had some sort of control over the situation.

She was nearly fired, Symone ranted and raved and threw things and threatened her so severely that Chloe had thought it would be inevitable. Clark talked with Symone, perhaps with more force than necessary, and she had been sufficiently flustered to give her another chance. It had been the longest stretch of time they had ever gone without speaking, and one day Clark simply walked up to her new apartment and knocked, sick of the spying and the worrying. The worst she could do was reject him, and while he pretended as though this wouldn't hurt worse than everything else, he still felt a horrible sense of dread as he tentatively knocked on her door. For a long moment he thought that she wouldn't answer, but the moment passed and the door opened.

"Hi, Clark." She looked tired, her hair was longer and her face was bare. He saw her laptop in the distance and he could hear the buzzing of the machine along with the sound of her neighbors three doors down going at it like teenagers. He forced himself to focus, but in his current state it was difficult.

"Hello," he said, for a lack of something smarter.

One shoulder, her left arm and head stuck out of the doorway. Her eyes were rimmed red, but from what he observed that seemed to be her permanent state whenever she was alone...which was increasingly frequent. She peered at him, clearly debating whether or not to politely excuse herself or let him into the apartment.

After deliberate thought she stepped aside and opened the door further to accommodate him. "Come in." He complied, inside her apartment in two steps and taking in every square inch of his surroundings within a second. The windows were at a convenient position for flight if it was ever necessary, the fire escape faced the adjacent brick wall and it seemed slightly larger than her other apartment. An upgrade, that was an unexpected plus.

"Nice place. It's closer to the paper." Ah, small talk. He was never very good at it, and he really didn't need to be. When he passed a certain age he stopped trying to acquire new friends and some might say that he made a conscious effort to avoid unnecessary human contact. As a reporter he didn't need to bother with too much of that, he always had a set of questions at the ready and an agenda on his mind. Whenever he was in her presence they rarely needed to resort to such means to keep the conversation going, but it was clear that times had changed.

She nodded listlessly, collapsing onto her couch. It was the same one as in her previous establishment but it looked very different in the post friendship light. "That was one of the perks. I needed a change."

He sat down beside her, a cushion apart. "I can see that. I like the hair." The compliment wasn't entirely true, given that she slightly resembled a shaggy hobo, but she smiled at his sincerity.

"Oh, thanks. Well, that's not really a change per se, more of a lack of hygiene." He cracked a smile at that and she mimicked his expression. She raked her fingers through her hair, uncharacteristically self-conscious. "What are you doing here?"

He was glad she cut to the chase, it was one of the many things he admired about her. "I was...worried about you." He was also worried that her feminine sensibilities would be injured by his intrusion, but he had bigger fish to fry.

She surprised him by expanding her smile. "I wonder why?"

She actually made a joke. "Yeah, I can be overprotective like that."

"Can I get you something? Or did you stop off by Istanbul for a little something?" She came to her feet and stepped into the kitchen, reaching into the fridge and pulling out a pitcher before he responded.

"Sure, as long as you're up." He felt it would be rude to refuse since she was already pouring him a glass.

"How goes saving the world?" she asked when she handed him his iced tea.

He took a sip. "Some days are better than others."

She nodded, still dazed. He wondered how long she had been on a crying jag but figured it would be impolite to ask. "I saw you on the news." He immediately understood the connotations. Before his exploits had rarely been picked up by the media due. Her eyes flickered with anger and frustration, and he was glad to finally see an emotion in her that he recognized.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she asked, and he thought up a half decent retort but she was on a roll. "Well, I guess that's a stupid question since clearly you weren't thinking anything because if you were you wouldn't have done something that risky!"

He felt an irrational sense of relief that she had noticed, been paying attention, but immediately squelched the feeling. "Everyone makes mistakes."

She snorted, stifling a laugh. "Tell me about it."

And that had been it. After all of his worrying and his spying, that was all it took for her to take him back into her life all those months later. She never explained, and he never asked her to. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, and all that he cared about what being there with her. He had been so relieved to have her back that he tried to push the memory of their long period of separation from his mind.

Clark didn't know why all of this was coming back now, maybe it was due to the fact that he had only recently been given all of the pieces to the puzzle and now had the ability to make something out of it all. Even after all of those years, the remembrance of that time still stung. And it was because of _Lex_, he had the power to turn her life upside down then and he was growing more and more certain that he still wielded that lethal influence over her.

His resolve to stay where he was was weakening and Clark was mere moments away from flying off to rescue his woman when the phone rang. It had barely buzzed when he snatched it up and turned it on, hoping and praying that it was her. "Hello?"

"Clark," Chloe said, sounding immensely relieved.

"Where are you? What's wrong?" He could almost sense her smile on the other line.

"I'm fine, everything's okay," she said but it didn't sound very convincing. For someone who could be so adept at lying, she always had trouble doing so when it came to Clark. Their new decision on honesty made it difficult to maintain any level of secrecy.

"If you don't tell me right now I'm going to come over there."

She sighed. "Well, I'm at work and I'm sort of...tied up at the moment." God, she always hated that pun whenever she heard it in corny movies and now she was using it? She could hardly believe herself.

He wasn't buying it. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it doesn't really matter now. Lois is on her way with a universal handcuff key so I'll be a-okay."

Clark's eyebrows knit together and he tried to keep his voice level. "And why, exactly, do you need a universal handcuff key?"

She paused for a moment but he was more than willing to wait for her explanation. "Um, I'm kind of...handcuffed to my desk?" It wasn't a question but the guilty inflection in her tone made it sound like one.

It took Clark nearly twenty seconds to compose himself. He was lucky he didn't share his powers with the Hulk, or her apartment would be completely destroyed. "Kind of?"

"Well, alright, completely. Just one hand and I had to be a little bit crafty to get my cell phone. You know, using my foot to open the furthest drawer and picking it up with my toes? There was a lot of trial and error."

"I'd like to see that." He sounded more amused than upset and that was always a good sign. "And why didn't you call me?"

She had been expecting that. "Well, I know you tend to lean toward the melodramatic and I have a feeling that Lex is trying to bait you into...well, showing off," she said, and he understood the gist, though he wasn't happy about it.

"I'm expecting that you'll divulge more details when you get home."

He could see her roll her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, no worries. I've got a lot to tell you."

Clark hit his forehead with his free hand. How had he forgotten the primary reason he called her? "Oh, me too. Is this line secure?" She said that it was, they had made particular pains to make sure but he needed to be certain. "I head back from my guy with good news. Can I proceed without you?" They remained guarded even when they were sure that no one could listen in. The last thing either of them needed was to have their pride be their inevitable downfall.

She could barely contain her excitement. "Go for it. But make sure you dress for the occasion. I'll be home as soon as I can, I'll see you then." He could practically hear her jump up and down with anticipation, though that might be difficult when tied to a desk.

He had his 'costume' all ready and knew exactly where he was going. The scientist had given him very good news, whoever had contacted Lana with his doomsday prophecy had been pretty straightforward with his clues when they were told where to look. The elements that the paper had been soaked in were straight off the periodic table and upon investigation Clark realized that there were adjacent streets in Connecticut that happened to have the same name, and at the street intersection there happened to be a bank. And within that bank there was certain to be a safe deposit box...the idea of getting this done with that night was beyond exhilarating.

"Good, I'll see you then."

He was ready to hang up when she spoke suddenly. "I love you."

He was surprised that she initiated, but he responded instinctively and sincerely. "Love you, too." He wasn't sure if she said it to keep him from being too angry at her current predicament, or maybe she thought Lex could be listening in and he didn't want to miss an opportunity to piss him off. Or perhaps she really meant it at the moment, but he couldn't keep himself from analyzing. That was what happened when you knew the woman you loved also happened to love another man. All Clark knew for sure was that he meant his end of it. And he always would.

**Tell me what you think!**


	36. Leverage

**It's my birthday!! Yay me, and I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.**

Chloe hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep until she was being shaken into consciousness. She instinctively hoisted the blanket she had draped over her lap up to her chin and cringed at the new source of light shining in her face. It had been a rough day of bondage and death threats, but she had been so excited to discover exactly what was in that safety deposit box that she forced herself to stay awake until Clark came back. It was obvious that she had failed.

Clark had already shrugged off his disguise before he moved to wake her, but she could still see the remnants of his 'costume'. Hair slicked back, eyebrows darkened, slight changes to be sure but they were effective. She blinked a few times more than necessary, momentarily confused by his altered appearance.

He silently reached for her arms, investigating her wrists for any sign of bruising and vindicated and frustrated when she winced. "He do this to you?" Clark tried to remain calm, but she could hear his voice pique in anger.

"I did this to me," she grunted, moving herself hesitantly into the sitting position. "Lex may have cuffed me but I'm the one who stupidly struggled against steel." In her righteous fury she had been more than happy to squirm and pull on her arm, and it hadn't started to ache until after the adrenaline wore off.

Clark tried to take this in stride, nodding and taking a seat in the vacant space beside her. "Do I want to know why he did this?"

She smiled. "It's a long story, I want to hear about the safety deposit box first. It better be good, I'm going to be majorly pissed if we've spent the past few months chasing after shadows." Clark cast her a sidelong glance but let her get away with the transparent attempt to change the subject--for now.

He moved to open shoe box in his lap, and Chloe glanced down in surprise at it. The box was so inconspicuous that it had escaped her notice. It slightly battered, resembling a child's memory chest, like the ones they used to make in kindergarten.

"How did you get in without the key?" she asked, yawning.

Clark gave her a look. "No one saw me. I disabled the security cameras and put the safe back in place. They'll never know anyone was in there," he promised, "the cameras were out of commission for six seconds and then the glitch resolved itself. It was all over so quickly that no one considered it was a robbery. They're blaming a thunder storm on the east coast." That was a relief. Then there was no way Lex could catch wind of the theft if they didn't even know that one had been committed.

Her breath hitched in her throat, and she didn't know what to say so she decided to remain silent. Clark smiled slightly as he lifted the lid, unintentionally prolonging the suspense, "I know it's stupid...but I haven't opened it yet. I, uh, wanted to..." his voice trailed off, but he didn't need to finish the sentence. She knew what he meant, he'd wanted to look at the fruits of their labor together. They had both worked so hard to figure this puzzle out, to escape the suffocating and watchful eye of Lex by any means necessary. It seemed as though part of Clark's way of expressing how much she meant to him was to keep her in the loop.

After months of trying to crack the code, they were more together now than ever...and he couldn't help but like it that way. He felt a surge of guilt every time he felt that way, but it was hard to regret something that brought them closer together. Having a cause undoubtedly put things into perspective, assigned meaning to their time together.

Chloe wiped her eyes and he discarded the cardboard lid on the shoe box, pulling the contents out and onto his lap. The anticipation was nearly too much for the both of them, and hers was coupled with staggering and gut-wrenching fear. If this wasn't all they had hoped it was...god, they'd have to give it up. It was easier to rationalize it all when they just thought that they would be dodging Lex and starting a new life for themselves, but this was no longer the reality. Lex's alleged allies were new in the equation, and as much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, he was right.

As smart and capable as she was, in comparison to Clark's near immortality she was as defenseless and fragile as a newborn. Any of these governmental types with even the slightest bit of experience could dispatch her in the blink of an eye. Now that she had some scope of what they intended she couldn't stop herself from playing out various scenarios in her mind, and they all reached the same inevitable conclusion. If they tried...her only hope was Clark protecting her from the attempts and Lex trying to thwart them. This wasn't just a matter of curiosity anymore; they needed something big, something substantial, some reason for them to let her go. She needed to change her stock from must terminate to must live. They needed leverage, and _she _needed it as a life insurance policy.

Amidst the pile of paperwork there was a stack of audio tapes. Their eyes met and both wore the same expression of confusion. Clark handed them to Chloe wordlessly and she rose to her feet, numbly moving toward the kitchen to retrieve her outdated tape player from the junk drawer. He started leafing through the papers as she rummaged through her drawer for what Lex had teasingly called her 'antique.' And that had been when they were together, it was fast approaching museum-worthy. But she was sentimental like that, keeping some of her Wall-of-Weird clippings, the articles she wrote in high school and the tape recorder she used in her youth to interview her subjects, even if she hadn't used it in years.

She had to replace the batteries, and it was only then that she realized that her hands were shaking. Clark knew that this was important, but he didn't yet grasp the gravity of the situation and for the time being she needed him to remain like that. There would be plenty of time to panic at a later time and date, but now wasn't the time.

As she walked back to the couch she caught a glimpse of Clark's expression, and she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he must be one lousy poker player. They had never played and in the heat of battle he was successful at not telegraphing his punches, but this was different. The shock and excitement emanated from every square inch of his face and she felt her shoulders loosen and a knot of tension dissolve inside of her. He didn't acknowledge her approach, eyes fixed on the papers before him, pupils blurred as he scanned through the information. She felt a jolt of surprise, she hadn't realized that super reading had been one of his many powers.

"That son of a bitch," he said in total awe, leaning backward and kicking his shoes off. After several silent minutes of reading he handed her the papers and she felt a similar lurch of surprise.

"Dr. Randall?" It wasn't really a question, but due to her inflection Clark nodded in the affirmative. He had been the one to craft that infuriatingly difficult piece of paper? He was the one who gave it to the eternal damsel-in-distress, Lana? It was a detailed transcript of his dealings with Alexander Luthor, from the first transaction to the last. He had copies of every check made out to him, of every notarized letter and of months of his telephone records, highlighting calls from LuthorCorp and other 'secure' lines. She was certain that Lex must of had these immediately expunged these records in order to be careful, but somehow the twisted doctor had recovered them despite Lex's best efforts.

She was staggered that this hack had, for all intents and purposes, bested Lex Luthor. Of course it hadn't done him any good, he was rotting in some remote location but the fact that he had so diligently recorded the entirety of their business relationship was in itself amazing. Of course alone the phone archives would prove nothing, and certainly wouldn't have proved that it had been Lex who was contacting him...but that was just icing on the cake.

The tapes were labeled with dates, all starting quite some time after she and Lex had begun dating. She slid the first tape in and didn't realize she had been holding her breath in nervous anticipation until she got lightheaded and her vision blurred. She pressed play.

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Lex stepped onto the podium to an explosion of applause, more than three-quarters of the audience rising to a standing ovation when they saw his famous face come onto the big screen behind him. He smiled charismatically, waving with kindhearted diplomacy to his many supporters and even fans. It was already time to campaign for his second term, and no other opponent stood a chance. He had the highest approval rating in the recorded history of US presidents and his people were already clamoring to extend the two term maximum...and with his economic reforms being so overwhelmingly successful it looked as though they might actually succeed.

He had note cards laid out neatly before him, but he didn't bother to look at them. He had everything memorized already, and he knew from experience that when he maintained near constant eye contact with the crowd they were more apt to think he was being genuine and spontaneous. He was certain that the New York Times would do another rave review of him in the next issue, and while the idea usually made him giddy he felt unusually hollow that day.

His delivery was flawless, and when he finished the entire stadium stood to applaud, chanting "Four more years!" like trained monkeys. He frowned, confused by his cynicism, but quickly conjured up another blinding smile to dazzle the crowd. He stepped off stage and cast a glance into the audience, feeling his heart stop when he saw Chloe standing in the midst of his adoring 'fans'. He blinked and peered back into the milling pool of people, heart restarting when he realized it was just some other blond reporter, jotting down notes and looking up at him with something akin to hero worship.

At some other time he might have singled her out, called her backstage and impressed her with his greatness and power. It would be easy to seduce her, but it would be too easy. The moment passed and he turned away, sending a parting wave before stepping off stage and into the capable hands of his security personnel. He was ashamed to admit that before his Presidency he had done just that, having meaningless flings with reporters who bore even the slightest resemblance to Chloe, winning them over with some sob story and convincing them that he just wasn't ready for a serious relationship. None of them ever felt used in the slightest, and that didn't do much credit to their intelligence.

One of his makeup people wiped the sweat from his brow, as though he were too high and mighty to mop up his own forehead. One of his secret service agents handed him a slip of paper accompanied with a stony nod. _Oh boy,_ another one of _those _notes. To say he was sick of them would be a drastic understatement.

He tucked it in his pocket for the time being, excusing himself to his waiting limo and ignoring the plethora of compliments his people offered him on his rousing speech. He had already forgotten what he had said, his mind was occupied on more important things than the exceptional ass-kissing of federal employees. He hated being out of control, feeling as though there as nothing he could do to change the future. He had offered Chloe the only possibility he could think of, and she had rebuffed it without much thought.

God he wanted her, more than he had ever wanted anything in his life...and whether that didn't say much about his ambition toward the presidency or said too much of his obsession only time would tell. The idea of her being with Clark made him physically ill, and if there were no repercussions he would have certainly dispatched of the boy wonder sooner rather than later. But a mere attempt to do so had put paid to their relationship, as he was reminded every time he saw her. But even now that she was with that farm boy with an intense hero complex, he still couldn't reconcile himself to the possibility...no, probability that there was nothing more he could do to save her from the inevitable. His consorts weren't patient people, and they had been suspicious of her from the start.

Chloe Sullivan was a prominent member of the media, even though she had adopted an unpopular stance on the President it had done little at most and nothing at least to damage her credibility. She always viewed Lex's policies with the eye of suspicion and she had always been more than happy to call him out when he overstepped his bounds. Their previous relationship was also disheartening, not only did she know him better than anyone else she also didn't trust him with good reason. She was a liability, and the only one that Lex adamantly refused to allow them to 'handle'. They only had one method of silencing dissenters who endangered their livelihood, and it was a permanent solution.

Lex's feelings for her only added to her dangerousness, and they had been underhandedly threatening her well-being for years in order to force him to comply where he might have refused beforehand. While it would be slightly detrimental to lose such an effective bargaining chip, it would be worth it in the end. She was far too high-risk and the situation too precarious for them to chance having her ruining all they had worked so hard to achieve. With Lex in office, it was a dream come true for his allies and they weren't about to let some stupid little tramp ruin their plan.

He stepped into the limousine, effectively concealing his disgust as half a dozen zealous fans waved newspapers with his face printed on it in one hand and a pen in the other. He gently deflected the autograph attempts and when the door was closed he pulled the note from his pocket in a moment of sheer desperation.

His heart dropped into the pit of his stomach when he recognized the handwriting.

_Time is up._

It wasn't signed, and it didn't need to be. He crumpled the note and pushed it into the cigarette lighter, singing the letters until it was unreadable.

He had to think of something.

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"I told you not to contact me."

"What did you expect, Mr. Luthor?"

"I expected compliance, not this...willful disobedience. The project is terminated, I don't know why you continue to pester me."

"You offered a chance to change the world, to make the first real discovery we've made in decades and then you just took it away. Why hire me to experiment on a human and analyze his blood and tissue sample if you didn't want something to come of it? An autopsy, you said, would yield the best results--"

"I don't need to be reminded of what I said, there was an unavoidable change of plans and I was forced to abandon the experiment, as I have told you time and time again." Chloe wondered why Lex hadn't cut him off earlier, but supposed it was better late than never. This was their last conversation, their final clash before Theodore Randall disappeared off the face of the earth and was probably buried deep under it.

"This man is a genetic marvel, and it would be a sin to not study him further." Hindsight's twenty/twenty, and when listening to their conversations it was clear to them that in their last few exchanges the taping had become more than a precautionary measure. He was baiting Lex, using information and getting him to agree to it in order to establish proof.

She didn't know what he hoped to accomplish with this, if he wanted to blackmail Lex into continuing the operation or simply deciding to vindictively destroy his career by letting this information out. No one would care about Dr. Randall's part in the whole mess, at the time it was clear that he was underground and the likelihood of discovering him was slim to none. Scum bags like him tended to hang around other unscrupulous fellows of the same or similar moral fiber, and while many would rat their allies out for a sandwich he wasn't that type of sleaze.

"Do not call me again. There's nothing to be gained by furthering our business relationship, and while I am certain that you have already understood my intention allow me to be perfectly clear. You have long since been terminated from my employ and you still are. Give it up before something regrettable happens." And that was the end of it all. Hours of listening to the tapes and this was the grand finale? She wondered how soon after Lex had him killed. Did he issue the hit mere moments after hanging up the phone, or did he wait a little longer, until it was clear that Randall hadn't 'given it up' as he had been advised?

The papers were strewn across her coffee table and she had been leaning on Clark for so long that she couldn't recall the last time she had sat upright. All these years later she finally understood the scope of Lex's plans for Clark, and they didn't disgust her any less than before. She wondered how the public would react to knowing that their President had illegally experimented on what was thought to be a human being, later discovered to be Superman and was set on slicing and dicing up the hero. While so many were willing to snipe at him for the reward money, she was certain that the President's actions would be viewed much more pessimistically.

The citizens were expected, to some extent even allowed to behave in such a fashion but the Head of State was supposed to be above all that. His ratings would certainly plummet and he would have a lot to answer for, what else had he concealed from the people? They were more than happy to go along for the ride, jump on his bandwagon when things were looking up but the moment they faced a downturn more than a few would abandon ship.

She held the ammunition to end his lucrative political career, even if this didn't completely destroy him it would damage his image and shatter his credibility. The bulls eye on her forehead just got even bigger and brighter.

They had known all of this to be true, Chloe for years and Clark for mere months but when faced with such overwhelming proof it was staggering. And good God it was freeing, could this actually mean that they could actually get away?

Clark stroked her hair and put the recorder down. They sat in silence, mulling over what they had just heard. Chloe finally spoke, "we hit the jackpot."

He nodded vehemently. "You bet we did."

It was overwhelming, they both knew exactly what they had but they had no idea how to act next. "What should we do?" It was clear that Clark was wondering the same thing. They had focused so much energy on figuring out that stupid little slip of paper that neither of them ever put any serious thought in what to do afterward. It wasn't like the movies where there was always a clear objective and one of the characters usually had some plan of action. This was as far as the plan went, and they needed to strategize.

"Why were you handcuffed to your desk?" Clark finally asked, not sure how to proceed with the other pressing question.

Chloe considered deflecting, but knew that he needed and deserved to know exactly what was going on. Now was as good a time as any, which was to say that now was as bad a time as any, too.

"Okay, okay...but you have to promise me that you'll delay judgment and reaction. I just need to say it all, and then you can comment all you want after I'm done. No interruptions," she said sternly and Clark nodded warily in agreement. It seemed as though every time she asked him to do this the urge to interrupt and react was overpowering. He did a good job of keeping silent, cracking his knuckles in frustration as she detailed the extent of their exchange. She hesitantly ventured into the most awkward part of the experience and he leapt to his feet, turning away from her and shaking with rage. The marriage proposal plus the sexual assault was a little too much for him to take, but he recovered admirably. She waited for him to calm down before she continued, and as promised he didn't say a word.

He reacted predictably to the news that there was a dagger dangling over her head and she could tell that he was resisting his violent impulses. She saw him eye the remote control first, followed by an ugly piece of art some acquaintance had given her as a house warming present. He repressed the urge and listened, though it was clear that it pained him to remain silent.

When it was clear that she had finished, Clark took a deep breath. "I really hate him," he said.

She was startled into laughter. "I know. Does it help knowing that we've finally got him over the coals?"

He considered that for a moment. "A little bit," he admitted. "I would feel better if we had more space between us...like a continent."

"Weirdly enough, it's not so much him I'm worrying about right now. I'm more nervous about getting sniped when I go to get my mail." Clark nudged her and frowned, clearly distressed. He didn't like to hear her joke about that, no matter how true or pressing it was.

"He'd never hurt you," he said with absolute certainty. He fixed his eyes on hers and took a deep breath. "He's in love with you." She knew that, but it still made her heart thump when he said it. She could see the pain in his eyes that he tried so hard to conceal and she felt a surge of overwhelming sadness. Maybe it was the heightened emotions or the death threat hanging over her, but she felt awful that she was the only one who could consistently and unintentionally inflict this horrid pain upon him.

Chloe nodded, tears welling up. "Yeah, and so do you." She knew that he did, that he loved and trusted her strongly and with no reservations and that deserved recognition.

He leaned forward, somewhat hesitant as he wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "What's not to love?"

She laughed and leaned against him, head nestled in the crook of his shoulder. "We're actually going to go through with this."

He looked down at her. "You're sure?" She frowned, they always seemed to revisit this. He constantly feared that she was just going change her mind and was even more afraid that he was holding her back. As much as he loathed Lex, he hated the idea of becoming something worse and more all-encompassing than him. He knew that he had the power to keep her, to make her stay with him through the fear of what Lex and his men could do to her. But he would be no better, Lex wanted to trap her in a gilded cage and Clark would just help construct a prison in her own mind. No matter what she decided, he would protect her. It wasn't simply a fair weather relationship, he loved her and wanted to be with her, but he would never and could never persuade her through fear. He was better than that, and he knew that in this way in the very least he was better than Lex.

"I'm sure. Maybe with all of this we could convince him to let us go. We could have a life somewhere, and I want that life with you." She didn't need to tell him that she had always yearned for a future with Lex, but that was past tense.

"I just--" he started, but Chloe quickly interjected.

"I know, you're a hero, Clark. You want to save me from me, Lex and even you, but right now it's not necessary. You want to make sure that I know what I want and I do. I haven't changed my mind and I'm thinking clearly...well, as clearly as I can think knowing that the government has a hit out on me and that we have enough firepower to blow the President out of the water. Wow, all of this sounds a lot like a conspiracy theory."

He smiled and nodded, trying not to react with too much enthusiasm. "I've heard that times of extreme stress are not the best for making permanent decisions," he said, hedging.

Chloe smiled. "We all learned that lesson after watching _Speed _a few times."

The corners of Clark's mouth twitched. "You watched that movie more than once or twice?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "Well...when I was younger I sort of liked it." He could hear the embarrassment color her tone.

He bit back a laugh. "You did?"

"C'mon, Keanu Reeves without a shirt? It was worth a few views."

He couldn't hold back the next laugh, and his whole body shook. She loved the sound of it, especially given the tense circumstances but she still felt childishly self-conscious. "Huh, I never imagined you to be a Keanu Reeves fan."

She stiffened. "I'm not, but when I was younger he held a certain...appeal. Who did you _imagine _I would be a fan of?"

He paused for a moment and cleared his throat. "Mr. Clean." She elbowed him hard in the ribs but it didn't even put a dent in his explosive laughter, and she felt herself suddenly overtook as well.

"Are you really all that surprised that I took a liking to an incredibly muscular, dark haired law enforcer who was seemingly invincible?" she asked when the laughter had subsided.

He mulled that over for a moment. "And if I remember correctly, the heroine in that cheesy 90's movie also got handcuffed to something by the bad guy." He was right, but the difference was that Sandra Bullock wasn't in love with him.

"Are you done picking apart the movie choices of my youth?" she asked with feigned dignity.

She felt him shrug as she pressed her cheek against his neck. "I don't know, if you gave me something else to work with I think I could go all night." What she found absolutely adorable was that he hadn't even realized the double entendre.

Eager to change the subject, she spoke. "What were you saying? Um, before the whole _Speed _ramble?" she asked.

Clark blinked and considered the best course of action. "Oh, nothing important. We can talk about it later." Maybe now wasn't the best time, or maybe he was just chickening out. But he had every intention of having a serious conversation somewhere in the near future.

She nodded and let it pass. "What movies were you into when you were younger? I mean, before I knew you."

Clark smiled. "Looking for some fuel?"

She kissed his neck. "I can't start a fire without it."

**Tell me what you think! I really enjoyed writing their back and forth exchange toward the end and I'd love to hear some feedback.**


	37. Proof and Truth

**I really liked writing this chapter and I hope y'all enjoy it! It's all Lex and Chloe, so I'm sure it will delight many :)**

It was a safe place...well, as safe as either could guarantee. He needed to be sure that they wasn't being listened in on and she wanted to meet in a semi-public area for the obvious reasons. The park seemed like a good place to satisfy both requirements. She had checked the nearby bench for bugs nonetheless, but with all of the background noise eavesdropping seemed unlikely.

She waited for less than five minutes before he appeared. Per usual he was in an opposite state than she was, while she had her arms crossed and felt unfathomably anxious and overwhelmed with fear, her prior paramour was showing none of those insecurities. Lex strutted down the winding trail wearing a wide brimmed hat, a pair of loose fitting slacks and a jacket, seeing her before she saw him. Sunglasses were perched on his nose to complete the disguise, and no one bothered to cast him a second glance.

Chloe stood alongside the bench as agreed, hugging her arms tighter to her for warmth and in order to self-soothe. It was a beautiful day, but chillier than she had reckoned. Her heart was going a mile a minute, and it started doing cartwheels when she first spotted Lex approaching in the distance, incognito of course. It shocked her to realize that this was the first time she had seen him outside of a suit in the better part of a decade.

Seeing as he had the highest approval rating ever documented for a President, the possibility of being spotted was always high he needed to be incognito in order to keep any sense of privact. No one would expect that the head of their country would be stopping by a local park in Kansas dressed like a local with a poor sense of style, so at least he was safe from recognition for now. The moment their eyes met both of their spines straightened and shoulders squared simultaneously. No matter how hard she tried to deny it and avoid it, there was always a perceptible change inside of her when she was in close proximity to him.

He hadn't sounded surprised when she asked if they could meet, but she knew he must have been burning with curiosity. And she had no idea how all of this was going to play out, and she only hoped that it worked for the better. A folder full of photocopied paperwork was wedged inside the folds of her jacket, and as she started thinking about its contents it started to feel progressively heavier.

Clark wasn't happy when she told him where she was going, but he understood and didn't try to stop her. He understood the necessity and never questioned her loyalties. With every passing day she realized how very lucky she was to have him in her life, his unstinting support never ceased to amaze him. She knew that it was hard for him, but she also knew that he felt secretly superior to Lex when he was able to contain his disproval when Lex had always been utterly incapable of doing so. He trusted her, and though it was hard to resist the temptation to swoop in and save the day...and in the mean time killing or disabling Lex. But he had always been in control of that part of his nature, though it was admittedly more difficult with Lex involved.

Chloe was well aware the pains Clark had to go through to give her the privacy she desired, not using his extra senses to super spy on her. She felt a rush of emotion as she thought of this...if Lex had his ability, he most certainly would have used it otherwise and definitely upped the ante on her security detail and monitored her every movement.

When she bundled up to head out and into the park he had kissed her on the nose and pulled her to him, slipping a folder into the front of her jacket. "Be careful," he said, "I'll see you soon." He was prepping for their impending flight and the idea was terrifying. The end was in sight, and she could only hope that this meeting was going to work out in their favor.

He spoke first. "This is the first time I've seen you since…well," he said in an intentionally gentleman-like manner, as though too polite to allude to their last meeting.

"Since you assaulted me, cuffed me to my desk and then proposed?" she interjected helpfully.

He nodded. "Precisely," he smiled, "how did you get out of that little conundrum by the way?"

He was just asking to be polite; he had the surveillance footage and was well aware. "Lois."

Lex quirked his eyebrows, feigning surprise. "Not Superman? You didn't call upon him to rescue you from the clutches of evil?" She knew his game and simply smiled.

"He was busy." And that was a lie. She knew that Lex was trying his hardest to try to trap Clark in a situation to showcase his 'talents' in order to have some leverage against him and this would have been the perfect opportunity. Though he hadn't said it, she knew that her office had to be equipped with cameras. The very last thing they needed mere days before they fled the country was undeniable proof of his superior genes.

"How is Lois, by the way?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Good, all things considered. She scored my office and got a slight raise." As little as Chloe wanted to admit it, she knew that somehow Lex was to thank for that.

He smiled. "Was there a reason you called me here or did you just want to flirt?" Their exchange hardly counted as flirting but he succeeded in eliciting an embarrassed blush, which was clearly his main objective.

She opened her mouth to speak but he raised his hand to stop her. "I hate to set a poor precedent, but I need to make sure that you aren't wired."

She rolled her eyes and Lex took out what looked like a handheld metal detector and did a quick scan before being satisfied. "Of course I had men position a device to disable electronics in this vicinity, but it can't hurt to be doubly careful."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course, you're nothing if not efficient."

"I have a feeling that you don't mean that as a compliment," he said, feigning surprise.

She smiled in spite of herself. "And circle gets the square."

Chloe tossed him the folder and in his surprise he caught it. He weighed it in his hand, frowning theatrically. "What's in here? A very heavy letter of surrender?" he asked, flipping it open. She wished that she had a camera to capture the moment he realized exactly what it was that she gave him.

"Not exactly." It was hard to keep from sounding smug, but she succeeded rather admirably.

"What's this?" he asked, poring over the data with a growing expression of unease.

"The burden of proof. My leverage." He tore his eyes from the papers and fixed them on her.

He could hardly process it. "You found this...how? You really did it," he said shell-shocked. He couldn't believe it. She won, she _thought_ that she won. She may have beat him...but her victory would be short-lived.

"Did you know that he hid all of that? Is that why you got rid of him?" Chloe asked just for the sake of asking. She didn't know whether he would respond.

He shook his head slowly, not bothering to contradict. There was no point lying now. "No, we couldn't trust him...Randall was starting to make waves, threatening extortion. I thought that...that they had handled it before he was able to get organized," he answered, stunned.

"You were wrong." He couldn't argue that. "How did this happen? Why'd Randall go to Lana so long after you two broke up?"

Lex gaped, leafing through the folder. "He didn't know about you, even after that abduction disaster he just thought that you were..._with_ Clark and I never bothered to correct the impression," it must have taken some restraint, "but Lana was public. He must've went after her when he sensed the tide turning, after the Clark debacle. He wanted to go public, make a fortune with his findings but I kept stopping him. After I declared the project over he went underground, but he didn't stop.

"He periodically harassed me for years, but since he 'disappeared' he had trouble contacting me." Chloe was sure that Lex didn't make it easy, either. She could hear Randall's anger and frustration and when she listened to those tapes she could tell from the desperation in Lex's voice that he wanted nothing more than to just have Theodore Randall drop off the face of the earth and never bother him again. "I thought it would stop...but every so often I'd get another call, another letter," he said, shaking his head in disgust. "And when I started being groomed for the Presidency there was...pressure to get rid of him."

He saw her face contort in disgust and went on the defensive. "He was a nuisance and had already been living under the radar for years, operating some chop shop in Vegas. I...never ordered anything, but he just went away. He could be in Bora Bora for all I know." But there was no conviction in his voice. While he may not have approved anything, he hadn't objected, either.

She shook her head, but didn't bother to chastise him. He was more apt to respond if she didn't push his buttons. "I've given quite a few people this information and they won't act unless I disappear."

Lex nodded, looking tired and old. "What are you going to do?" he asked, caution coloring his tone.

"Nothing," she said with gut-wrenching sincerity, "I'm going away and as long as I'm safe and sound this will never get out." She was trying hard to keep everything in the singular, referring only to herself and not so much as alluding to Clark. It was the best way to go about wrangling his cooperation.

He stared her down, studying her face astutely. There was a look on his face that conveyed nearly unfathomable loss, as though he had just discovered that she was dead. After a moment, he nodded. "I believe you," oh joy. "But there are those who won't," oh boy.

He tucked the folder carefully under his arm and began to pace. "It was smart, but you've seen too many espionage movies," he said listlessly. She felt her heart stop for a long moment.

"It's not good enough. Those who I answer to aren't going to take that chance. They'll find you and they will kill you without hesitation, doing the same to those who you've communicated with. Maybe they'll brand them traitors beforehand, or they'll just disappear or be the victim of a mugging gone wrong but every last one of them will die. These people are not reasonable, they will see this as intent to reveal and they will act accordingly." Her jaw dropped and he pulled the information out from under his arm, flipping it open and skimming it hungrily.

"The fact that you know all of this," he said, brandishing the folder, "will just make it vital that you die. There's no bargaining. Lucky you brought this to me first. You didn't try anything yet, did you?" She shook her head, feeling suddenly lightheaded. She collapsed onto the nearby park bench and cradled her head in her hands. All that she had wanted was to create a reason for them to let her disappear, and as it turned out she had signed her own death warrant. They certainly would have killed her before, hunted and took her out mercilessly and she had hoped that this would change that, but she was wrong. She had seen this information in an entirely different light, but now that Lex pointed out the flaws in her logic she was dizzy from fear and intense disappointment. All of this...for nothing.

He stepped forward hesitantly, halting when she spoke. "What can I do?" Desperation was bringing her to despair.

"You mean what can you and Clark do," he corrected coldly.

She met his eyes unflinchingly, and even in this public venue she felt as though they were the only people in the park. She nodded. "Yeah, I guess I do." And she had been so careful to keep from mentioning him.

He frowned, and the lines etched in his face made him look years older. "I know that you think I'm a monster incapable of thinking or acting outside of self interest," that was a pretty apt description, "but you're wrong. I don't want anything to happen to you. You think that I always put myself before anything else, and that can be true, but for the longest time you have been the first and only thing I think about. Every time I see you it's like a light goes on..."

"Where are you going with this?" she asked wearily. She was sick and tired of hearing about how much she meant to him, especially now. She was as good as dead and all he could do was try to convince her of the sincerity of his regard.

He smiled humorlessly, equally tired. "I've said it so often that it's almost lost it's meaning, but I love you and I am ask..._begging _you to reconsider." She knew to what he was alluding, and it scared the ever-living daylights out of her.

"I'll level with you." What did she have to lose? All of their cards were on the table and further deception would get her nowhere. Withholding information would serve neither of them now and in a way it was freeing knowing that they could talk likes adults.

"I've never stopped loving you. Call it a character defect or pure stupidity, but there it is," she said and Lex felt his eyebrows raise involuntarily and his heart momentarily stop. She pressed on, ignoring his incredulity, "and you know me, you get me and you know as well as I do that I could never say yes to that. You knew it the first time you suggested it and you damn well know it now," she said as curtly as she could manage in her current state of paralyzing fear.

He pretended to consider this for a moment. "No, I didn't 'know' that," he said rather testily.

She raised an eyebrow. "Of course you did. What kind of woman could, in good conscience, agree to marry someone under the threat of death?"

"That's not what--" She cut him off.

"Of course it was, it was a scare tactic. But you could never entertain the notion that I would agree." She had him there.

"Fine," he said, "then forget about all that. Forget I asked." He dropped to one knee in front of Chloe and she looked away in embarassment, feeling a flush creep up her cheek. Some passersby paused for a moment and Chloe heard a jogger exclaim in joy at the seemingly romantic scene. Ha, if only they knew.

He reached for her hands and held them tight. "I don't want this to be the solution to a problem, I don't want this to be about the stakes I want you to be with me because you love me. You do, don't you?"

She forced herself to look him in the eye. "I do. You know it, I know it, hell, even Clark knows it! But so what? That ship sailed years ago. It doesn't change how I feel...even you killing a loose canon subordinate and plotting to dissect Clark like a frog couldn't change that." She freed her hands and wiped the tears brimming in her eyes.

He rose to his feet, a fleeting expression of pain and longing crossing his face. "Why not? Why can't it change? We could be happy, we would love each other I could...you could have everything you want." Except the one thing she needed.

She couldn't be enslaved, it didn't matter how nice her cage was. She would still be trapped in a life she was unwillingly thrust into, and she wasn't the type of person that could just accept that. Maybe it could be like he said, maybe it could be all right...but she would forever be a prisoner. It didn't matter what Lex's mysterious and nefarious backers did, she couldn't live the life she wanted and she wouldn't be the person she fought to hard to become. And that was only one of the more recent reasons on the mile long list titled "Why Chloe and Lex Can't Be Together."

He read her expression like a book. "We could have kids." Her eyes flew up to his face in shock. How was it that he was able to hone in on her latest insecurity? How could he possibly...

"Have you been spying on me?" she asked, her voice infused with anger and embarrassment.

He looked surprised and vindicated. "No, not recently. Other than the security detail, but you always have that." His tone was so matter-of-fact that she was overcome with the sudden desire to laugh. "Do you have anything to say?" he asked, clearly annoyed that she hadn't responded to his primary question.

She paused, trying to conjure up an intelligent response. "I can't do that," she said. Her voice betrayed her, and she winced at the pitchy crack.

"Could Clark ensure such a future?" he asked, tone dangerous and irrational. "Can he be there for you, have children, surrender his crusade for your well being?"

Chloe was careful not to gesture either way. "That doesn't matter. You need to finally realize that he has nothing to do with us, I know it's easier to pin all your frustrations on him but it's irrelevant." They seemed doomed to repeat the same conversation over and over again.

Lex paced. "If it wasn't for him we'd still be together, if it wasn't for him your life wouldn't be on the line!" He snarled.

"If it wasn't for _you_ my life wouldn't be on the line!" she accused. "But I can't blame you, and I don't want to. If I had the chance to do it all over again, I'd do it exactly the same." She didn't regret loving Lex, though life would have been much easier if she didn't. It was a vital part of her DNA and without it Chloe didn't know who she would be.

"We could be happy." She didn't doubt it, if things panned out the way she had hoped they would all those years ago. They were a fine pair, equals, and if life hadn't worked out the way it had she knew that they would have had a life together. Clark would have been no competition. But it was irretrievable and irreversible, the past was the past, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking about what life would have been like if Lex had never betrayed her.

"We could have been," she edited softly.

He shook his head fiercely. "We _still_ could be. Do you have any idea what you could do if you were my wife?" She felt a rush at the word but guarded her expression.

She needed him to understand, it was absolutely necessary that he take his blinders off and realize exactly what the stakes were. He was a highly intelligent individual, but he was capable of amazing feats of self-deceit when it fit his purposes. He wanted to believe that they could live happily ever after, that he and Chloe could somehow end up together despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He was the only thing standing between her and death, and she needed him to understand.

"Your friends don't sound like patient and trusting people. They'll kill me sooner or later, or at the very best they'll have me under constant supervision from here until eternity. That isn't a life, Lex!" she exclaimed. "Would you really prefer that I be with you and give up any meaningful future, surrender my free will and live on borrowed time?"

She needed him to recognize the facts, to see the big picture because it was looking as though he was her Obi Wan Kenobi...the only hope. The errant thought nearly brought a smile to her face at its pure silliness, but the severity of the situation stopped her.

This gave him pause for a moment. "No," he said, as though his answer surprised him.

Her heart jumped into her throat. She needed to strike while the iron was hot. "Do you think I'd be better off locked in a gilded cage with a lo-jack in my spine rather than being free to do what I want? Yes, I love you and yes if...if things were different I might entertain the notion of being with you but I can't even see it as a possibility." She was conflicted, but not indecisive.

He stepped forward, a mere foot away. A battle was clearly going on in his head and it took a moment before he reached a decision. Lex looked straight at her but seemed adverse to sitting.

"Is Lois involved in this?" he asked and she straightened her posture and tried to contain her reaction. That was quite the subject change, and Chloe was noticeably blind-sided.

"No, no, I'd never involve her in any of this." He believed her.

Lex shook his head, walking back and forth. They were lucky it was early morning and the park was relatively inactive or else the confidentiality of their discussion would be seriously impugned upon. "You need to give her this information. They'll figure she's in on it," he promised.

Chloe blanched. "I don't want to put her in danger."

His eyes snapped up. "You already have. Give her a transcript of this and she'll know what to do with it if the time arises." His willingness to share this incriminating knowledge with a prominent member of the media surprised her, especially seeing as it could spell his own doom.

He resumed his pacing, but limited the stretch in order to continue the conversation with relative privacy. "I'd tell you to go public but they're already watching you and they'll kill you if you even try. You've sent this to a lot of people, I gather. Senator Kent?" She nodded before she could stop herself. "Good, good. They'll be loath to go after her."

She was shell shocked. How could he be so desirous of spelling the end of his political career? It was impossible to not be affected by his eagerness and his willingness to assist despite her refusal. "What should I do?" she asked.

"What were you planning on doing?" Her innately suspicious nature made her pause at the question. Could he be just trying to get all of her information before he had her stopped or captured? Was his ultimate goal to thwart her and Clark's escape? But as she looked up at him, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was sincere. She couldn't explain it, and if Lois were here she would find her absolutely mad, but she knew Lex.

"We were just going to leave, go to a different country, preferably one far away. I'd contact my people every two weeks for the first year, then a month, then two months…" she trailed off, studying his expression for any sign of deceit. He simply nodded. She failed to mention that it was Clark who would be doing the contacting, she was still married to her decision to keep Clark out of the conversation as much as humanly possible.

"Are you going to help?" she asked, forsaking the 'me' or 'us' for the sake of avoiding confrontation.

He looked at her for a moment, face void of expression. "Yes." Of course. He would never and could never do something that would ensure that harm befell her, even if he had the added benefit of ridding himself of the ultimate fly in the ointment…Clark.

She nodded, a wave of gratefulness washing over her. She hated being in his power, so weak and vulnerable but she and Clark had done all they could to try and guarantee their safety and there was nothing more that they could do. She felt oddly empty inside, she and Clark had worked so hard and exerted so much effort to find some sort of insurance so that they could safely get away and now she was forced to realize that it was all for naught.

The idea of looking over their collective shoulder for the rest of her life wasn't appealing, but it was better than unavoidable death. Maybe this hadn't all been a waste of time, it in the very least spurred Lex into action that would actually help her. Without some proof he would have certainly rebuffed her attempts, but when it came straight down to it he cared about her too much to ignore the truth. He couldn't avoid the truth now and he loved her enough to know that he couldn't entertain a course of action that would bring about the end of her life.

It wasn't as easy as Clark and Chloe had hoped...and they had been very pragmatic when considering it all. She had hoped that they could fly off into the sunset and never be found, but if these people Lex was so afraid of and indebted to had even half the resources he did they wouldn't last very long. And from his evident hesitance, Chloe knew that these men must have held a much larger stake than even he did. Without his help they were doomed...or at least she was. Clark could survive and endure, she would only slow him down.

One of the many things she loved about Clark was his loyalty and she knew that he wouldn't just accept the status quo. He would fight until the end for her, for them, and with each passing day she came to realize that she would do the same. Of course she had known that she would risk everything for him, but as they became more and more of a unit as opposed to two people she knew that she would do the same. Without the benefit of super powers, of course.

He finally sank onto the bench, leaving a fair amount of space between them, but they would both feel the raw electricity spark between them. The silence amplified the tension and to quiet the racketing in her head Chloe extended her hand and placed it upon his, squeezing. She didn't cast so much as a glance toward him, she was afraid of what she would see. She was grateful and confused and completely uncertain of the future, but it didn't matter.

Lex looked up at her in surprise and inched closer, arms touching. He gazed up and she met his eyes.

To the disinterested joggers and families milling around they looked like a married couple, comfortable in each other's presence and clearly in love without showboating or flaunting the fact. They emanated an aura of care and devotion as they simply held each other's hand and looked at the expanse of trees in front of them.

It was simple and it was forgettable for all who might have witnessed it. They sat there for some time, never doing any more but both reluctant to break the contact. It comforted them both and meant more than they would ever care to admit.

"Thank you," she said, and she meant it.

He clasped his free hand onto hers. "You're welcome."

**Tell me what you think! I think I'm approaching the end...and I am very pleased with how it's turning out. I want to thank you all for being loyal readers and I couldn't ask for a better audience!**


	38. Fleeing and Pleading

**I'm picking up the pace and I hope you enjoy it :) it's a bit quicker paced than usual, but I like the progression. Tell me what you think.**

Their bags were packed, and Chloe came through the front door like a tornado. Clark had stayed in the country, not wanting to venture too far in case she needed him. It looked as though he made the right decision.

She threw open the floodgates haphazardly, spilling the story in its entirety. The panic was clear in her voice and he needed to stay on the ball in order to absorb the entirety of the story. "How soon can we leave?" he asked the moment she finished.

Chloe was relieved that he caught on so quickly. They didn't have time to rehash insignificant details, focus was a must. "We just need a few hours. I need to tell Lois." He nodded curtly.

"I understand."

Chloe felt a surge of affection for Clark, how the hell did she get so lucky? He barely blinked when she told him that all of their careful planning had been in vain and that they were going to have to rely on a man he loathed for some form of protection after the fallout. She knew that he loved her, but with every turn he proved it time and time again.

He didn't have to be involved in this mess, but through a series of choices he wouldn't change for the world here he was. Clark disappeared from sight for a moment, reappearing with two duffels and a fistful of cash. He crouched down and placed the baggage on the floor to free his hands. She looked at the stack of money and briefly wondered where he got it before banishing the thought from her mind. She didn't have the time or emotional capacity to think about that.

Chloe momentarily adopted Lex's habit of aimless pacing. "Everything's in order, right? We have liquid assets and everything, your mom said that she would handle the farm?" He nodded again. "I'm really afraid," she admitted, crossing her arms to her chest.

He stepped forward, coming up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin in the nook of her shoulder. "Me too."

"I'm about 99 point 9 repeating percent sure that Lex's demented colleagues are having me followed everywhere I go." She cut her eyes up to Clark, but it was hard to get a good look in their current position. "They'll kill us," she said gravely, but Clark took it in stride. He had his time to overreact before, and knew that it would accomplish nothing.

"We knew that he was involved in some insane crap but I didn't know how bad it was. But he's willing to help?" Chloe nodded, despite the skepticism in his voice.

"I'll try to buy some time before they notice that I'm gone," she said, sighing tiredly. "Ugh, but I just can't stand the idea of going out and getting all of this in order for Lois." She wasn't certain if her intense paranoia was necessary, but she couldn't stop herself from feeling it. She couldn't bring any of her belongings with her, they couldn't chance the possibility that anything was bugged and even the idea of having to go out and have all of these dangerous documents copied again sent a shiver down her spine. She didn't want them to have to take those risks again.

Clark smiled sadly. "I thought you might want to bring Lois in on it...so I took the liberty of making another copy." She turned around and threw her arms around him gratefully. They were so close to the finish line...but the stakes were higher than they knew.

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When Lex stepped into the Oval Office, he was already waiting for him. Lex expected it, he couldn't just disappear for an entire morning and expect no consequences. His secret service had of course established a perimeter around the area where they had met, and at this point in time he didn't find that to be particularly heartening. With each passing day and circumstance he came to distrust those around him, even those meant to protect him seemed to be playing for the other team...namely his alleged 'allies.'

Lex didn't like the fact that he was finding himself incapable of trusting his own people, and that was always dangerous. He was feeling less and less like the Commander in Chief and more like a pawn on a giant chess board.

He had expected chastising, perhaps a slight slap on the wrist, but he hadn't anticipated this. "My sources indicate the Sullivan is poised to flee." He didn't bother with pleasantries.

Lex inclined his head slightly and stepped forward. "Raul, how are you?" The man waved off his small talk dismissively.

"There are much bigger things at hand than paltry chitchat. We don't know what form of transport she is using but one of our sources indicated that she and her boyfriend are going to attempt to leave the country." He knew in the scheme of things it was petty, but Lex couldn't stop himself from feeling a moment of indignation at Clark's mention.

He shrugged. "Why don't we just let them go?" Lex asked, going against every fiber of his being by saying so. He would have loved to imprison Clark on some trumped up charge but his immense desire to do so made him suspicious of his own motives. As loath as he was to admit it, Lex knew that Clark would do anything to help her, and he'd be an idiot not to take advantage of that. His own hatred aside, Clark would protect Chloe until the end. While it might have been immensely satisfying to imprison him yet again, Lex was on his own and when it came to Chloe, Clark would be more than willing to help and he had to put her before his own wishes and desires.

"If they're out of the US they're out of our hair, and I'm certain that she's too scared to—" Raul waved his hand angrily, interrupting abruptly.

"You are _certain _of nothing, Mr. President. The only thing you know is what you _want _her to do, and there are no guarantees there," he said gravely.

Lex contained his panic and merely crossed his arms coolly. The danger with Raul and his associates was that they on first glance appeared completely unthreatening. He was dressed in a button down with dress pants and his receding hair parted down the middle. He looked very much like an amiable uncle, a few years past middle age with a divorce under his belt and three grown kids. No one could know that he was a ruthless and heartless man with few morals and no mercy. Years ago he had been elected orator of the interested group, the rest of them communicated through him, though there was never a formal vote conducted. It was easier that way.

"Let her go, we've got a tap on her laptop, on her cousin's computer, on her work computer, on her cell phone and on anyone's telephone that she might try to contact. You have no proof that she has any intention to go public or cause any more waves and it would be absolutely and completely unnecessary to do anything hasty." He posed a good argument, sighing affectedly to convince Raul of his absurdity. But all of his skillful reasoning and acting was in vain, it didn't work.

Raul shook his head slowly. "No, the others have grown restless with her constant impertinence. We can't be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives making sure that one girl isn't about to bring ruin upon us all. You were foolish, if you'll forgive my forwardness, in allowing this to happen. This will not do, this cannot stand," he insisted.

The President stepped forward threateningly. "No, I will not forgive your baseless criticism, no matter how _politely_ you try to phrase it. She has done nothing worthy of this immediate and frankly uncalled for action by a bunch of trigger happy money men who wouldn't know the burden of proof if it came up from behind them and starting tap dancing in don't-shoot-me-orange tutus." Lex snarled.

Raul didn't seem to feel threatened in the least. "Don't bother trying to goad me into another philosophical debate. You diverted us once, but you won't succeed again. She is incorrigible and has been a concern from day one. You know what must be done even if you aren't man enough to do it yourself." He turned to leave but Lex grabbed his arm in desperation.

"Don't do this," he pleaded. Raul pulled away, staring him down ruthlessly. "After your stunt with the threatening note did you really think I'd fold so quickly?"

"You can't control your woman and you attempt to make it seem as though I am overreacting? She is a danger to us all who must be handled." That was simply a nice way of ordering a hit.

Lex felt his heart jump into his throat and his mind started racing at a mile a minute. No, this couldn't be happening. "You can't do it. I won't sign off on it."

Raul smiled a horrible and monstrous smile. "It doesn't matter. It'll be done anyway. Of course I would prefer if you saw the light." Lex felt his heart stop. He was in an immovable position, trapped and incapable of doing anything. It was done. He and Chloe had done everything that they could, but they had been outmaneuvered. _Check mate._

Lex shook his head adamantly. "No, no, she has nothing. She won't do anything. We can arrest her for something-- anything, scare her with the threat of some prison time and she'll back down," he lied flawlessly. He knew exactly what she knew and that he couldn't scare her if he tried.

"We've got enough background info on Sullivan to know that the likelihood of that occurring is slim to nil. You've had ample opportunity to get her to change her mind and it clearly was ineffectual."

Lex shook his head, wiping the accumulating sweat from his brow. "If she tries, then do what you have to. But this preemptive strike won't accomplish anything apart from raising awareness. Do you really want the country's focus to be on the illegal dealings of glorified mobsters?" he asked, matching Raul's cruelty word for word.

"Do you know something that I don't?" he asked with terrifying stillness in his voice.

Lex succeeded in appearing surprised by the question. "Of course not, there's nothing to know." If he had any idea...any and everyone that Chloe tainted with the evidence would most certainly meet their demise. She couldn't have possibly understood who she was dealing with, that they wouldn't just call it a draw and allow her to flee the country privy to incriminating evidence. It would be a wipe out, and Lex was growing more and more convinced that he was simply the likable and popular figurehead of the regime.

If pressed for honesty, the idea of nosy impertinent busybodies getting what was coming to them wasn't particularly unappealing or frightening. But not Chloe's friends and acquaintances...no matter what he thought of any of them personally, they had gained her esteem and that merited a grudging respect in his book.

The idea of something happening to Chloe, however...he couldn't even entertain the notion. He felt his cheeks go bone white at the very thought. Even if they weren't together, a world without her wouldn't mean much to him. He couldn't quite explain it, but after years of associating with her, knowing her and loving her she was as close to incorruptible as he had ever found. She was human, but she was a good woman in a bad world, and even her existence made the world a better place.

"_Mister President..._I'm afraid that I don't need your agreement on the matter. But if you have a preference to how it will be handled, by all means, make your sentiments known."

Lex was reeling, his head in a state of confusion and panic the likes of which he had never experienced. "I understand your concern, Raul, but I'm afraid I don't find you justified in ending someone's life over it."

Raul grimaced. "Someone? I doubt if it was just some anonymous _someone _we would be having this conversation. There have been several occasions with several 'someones' and I never remember you raising an objection then." And he hadn't, he had been a coward and a fool, too absorbed with the prospective of power and title to realize what he was doing.

"You're right, I do have a personal...obligation to Ms. Sullivan and I let you operate as you please for the majority of the time. This is the first time I have ever requested amnesty."

Raul smiled, his teeth white and straight but the expression downright sinister. "And the last, I hope. I am not seeking your approval, Mister President, simply informing you of the inevitable."

If this was any other man, a lesser man, Lex would have thrown him up against a wall and throttled him, not stopping until the last breath of life was extinguished from his putrid corpse. But this was politics, and he had to restrain himself. But his jaw clenched and his knuckles tightened nonetheless. He had to think fast.

"You are going to have somebody in an authority position issue a warrant for her arrest, no bail, no excuses. She will be in custody and it is there she will stay," said Lex. He didn't want to have to compromise, but he needed to protect her.

This gave Raul pause, and he brought his manicured hand up to his chin. The suspense was almost too much for him to take. "That will do for present, but I fear it will not be the solution." It went without saying that the _solution_ would be infinitely more permanent.

He stepped toward the door, ready to leave before a thought brought him to pause. "I do have your _consent _on this, don't I, President Luthor?" He was sadistic and Lex wanted nothing more than to bash his skull in repeatedly.

Lex felt as close to a panic attack as he had experienced in the past seven or so years. _I'm so sorry, Chloe_. There was nothing he could do, he was impotent in comparison to these men. Lex nodded sternly, eyes blazing with an emotion that Raul neither recognized nor cared to understand.

"Then it's settled."

"I suppose it is." Lex said gruffly, turning away to conceal his shattered face. He as good as signed her death warrant, though hopefully it had stipulated a stay of execution. But he knew as well as anyone that there were no guarantees.

Raul nodded slowly, the hideous smile spreading across his remarkably average face.

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There was no time. Chloe body-checked the front door of the apartment building, waving carelessly to the confused doorman. She sprinted up the main stairwell, clunky flats slapping against the rubber steps. She ignored the dirty look an elderly woman shot her as she brushed past, she didn't care. Chloe adjusted her shoulder length chocolate-cherry wig slightly as she exited the corridor and landed in the hallway.

She pounded on Lois's door tactlessly, out of breath and feeling utterly ridiculous. Of course it had been Clark's idea to truss her up in such an outfit and while she admitted that it was a good idea, it didn't make her feel any less embarrassed. Of course, they were facing death, destruction and the possibility...no, _probability _of everything they had worked so hard for going straight down the drain and she was overwhelmed with self-consciousness. She heard movement but no action. Even her cousin didn't recognize her in this getup. "It's me, open up."

Lois complied, throwing it open and stepping aside to make way for her cousin. Chloe stepped in, kicking the door closed and ripping her jacket off in quick succession. She rarely went undercover, and she blushed self-consciously as her confused host stared her down. She was adorned in normally loose fitting slacks and a jacket, both stuffed with padding to make her appear thirty or so pounds heavier. Clark had insisted on it.

"What the hell is going on?" Lois finally asked, voice laden with more feeling than curiosity.

Chloe pulled out a folder wedged in the folds of her jacket, hand shaking. She looked down at the offending appendage in surprise, she could hardly assess her own feelings on the matter without dissolving into hysterics. Chloe had yet to allow herself a well-deserved meltdown, there was no time for such antics. She couldn't believe it…she just couldn't believe that this was actually happening, that all of this was finally coming to fruition. She was scared—terrified, actually, and she had no idea whether or not her efforts would succeed.

"Here," she handed the folder over to Lois. "People want to kill me over this, and I'm so sorry to suck you in but I'd bet anything that they already think you're in on it. I think…you may be in danger." There was no time for subtlety and even that proclamation was a drastic understatement.

Lois gaped, leafing through the folder; with every sentence her brow furrowed more and more. "What the hell is this?" She asked to fill the silence, but she continued to read from the folder voraciously.

"It's proof. The guy who's name is on almost every page, Dr. Theodore Randall, he's a bad egg, or he was…but he had some concept of leverage." It didn't do him much good, and it looked like it wasn't going to do much for them either. _An investment in knowledge pays the best interest..._the quote popped in her head out of nowhere and surprised her.

Lois nodded numbly. "I'll say."

"There's a lot of stuff in there, we've been compiling all of this for a while and I won't go into all of the strenuous and ridiculous things we had to do…" She stopped herself and redirected, not wanting to go into unnecessary detail. "We have all of this information copied and put in a lot of safety deposit boxes, hidden under mailboxes and just about anywhere we could put them. I just…I only hope it's enough." She paced, ready to climb up the walls and rip her hair out.

"What are you into, Chlo?" Lois asked, sinking back into a nearby lounge chair, thumbing through the documents.

"It's all there. Um, transcripts from conversations, the actual tapes went…well, they're somewhere safe. You can…I think you deserve to know everything, if you want. If you'd prefer you can just…hide it or burn it…" Lois shot her a look.

"Like that's going to happen. You're actually going to try to take on Lex?" she asked, unable to conceal the amazement in her voice. "I mean, if there was someone on the planet who has the balls to try that, it's you, but still…wow."

Chloe smiled, but it took a lot of effort. "No, I'm not that crazy. At least not yet, give me a little more time and maybe I'll try that. It's…we're going to leave." She said bluntly, once more surprising herself by her inability to verbalize in an articulate manner.

Her cousin's jaw dropped and the room quickly filled with tension glazed with fear. "Where? _We_?"

Chloe stepped forward tentatively, locking eyes. "Just me…and Clark, and I think it's better if you don't know." Lois broke the gaze and turned away, hand flying up to her eyes to blot the unseen tears.

"He'll come after you."

"I know." Her voice was steadier than she anticipated it would be, even though she wasn't sure that Lex was going to be the problem. If she had given him no indication of her plans to flee the country...he would definitely throw a tantrum the likes of which she had never seen, but since she was forced to tip her hand she was also forced to realize that she had much greater things to fear.

"Do you need anything? Money…food? Passports?" Chloe almost laughed at the last suggestion, but restrained herself. She could feel herself slipping into the starting stages of hysteria, it might have been better to avoid the emotional scene all together but she wasn't capable of that. Perhaps it was selfish, but she loved Lois far too much to just leave her high and dry.

"We'll be alright." It was as close to a lie as it could be without indeed being one.

"Are you and Clark eloping?" She tried to joke, but her voice cracked slightly and Lois winced at the sound. She and Chloe were more alike than they were willing to acknowledge aloud. It wasn't that they were averse to the comparison, but both felt that it would be an indulgence in vanity if they were to admit that so many of the traits they admired in the other were shared.

"Does this have something to do with his…eccentricities?" Lois asked, and Chloe was stunned. She knew that she must have suspected that there was something 'off' about Clark, but she had always been diplomatic and refrained from asking unwanted questions. Of course she had to be suspicious of his mysterious disappearing acts, how he always seemed to pop out of existence when there was trouble afoot and how secretive he and Chloe seemed to be. But it was easier to ignore and dismiss all of that, for the sake of her own sanity.

"It has more to do with me than him, but you're not wrong."

Lois paused. "Do I want to know exactly what's up with Smallville?"

Chloe trusted her, but didn't want to burden her cousin with knowledge that would only serve to put her in more danger. "No, I don't think you do." If she persisted Chloe was relatively certain that she would cave, but Lois simply nodded.

"How long…wait, I don't think that's something I should know. Does Lex know that you're flying the coop?" Chloe admired her intelligent questions, but time was a factor.

"He knows that I'm planing on it, but he doesn't know the time frame. The only thing I have going for me is that he doesn't think we can act this quickly." She got the hint and placed the folder on the nearby coffee table and came to her feet for the obligatory hug.

Chloe beat her to the punch, throwing her arms around her cousin and embracing her wholeheartedly. "I love you, Lola." She murmured teasingly into her ear, saying the word she had swore she would never utter again, and though Chloe couldn't see it Lois rolled her eyes before wiping them as a preemptive strike.

"I thought I told you never to call me that. That name should have died with my mother," she teased, swatting at her shoulder playfully.

Chloe smiled, tightening her grip. "She just wanted to kiddify 'Lois,' which I'm sure was no easy task." She retorted.

They broke away reluctantly and Lois concentrated her efforts on staying tough and composed. "Yeah, well nicknaming me after a fictional musical tranny didn't exactly do wonders for the self-esteem."

Chloe reluctantly put the heavy jacket back on and readjusted her wig. "I'm sure that's exactly what she had in mind when she combined the first syllable of your first name with the first two letters of your last." Lois lunged forward and hugged her again.

"I'll see you again." She said, shooting for definite but sounding unsure.

Chloe nodded fiercely in agreement. "Of course." Lois stepped back hesitantly and this time Chloe dove in for the third goodbye.

For two girls who weren't hugging people, they were certainly making some strides. They finally broke apart, neither having the slightest clue when they might see each other again. "How do I look?" Chloe asked, straightening her posture for full visibility.

"Hmmm…I really don't know without seeing you pose." Chloe swatted her and Lois relented. "Alright, alright. You look absolutely ridiculous." This earned a smile.

"Be good."

Lois shrugged, taking it as a suggestion rather than an order. "Don't get yourself killed. You're one of the few people around that I can actually stand."

Chloe quirked an eyebrow speculatively, heading for the window without a view. "Ditto." She struggled with the locks for a moment before succeeding in lifting it slightly, glancing down at the fire escape nervously.

"_Ditto_? I think you're a decade or two behind on the lingo, Chlo." Lois said, and she knew that she was just trying to elongate their time together and that she should be more selfless and maybe help her clueless cousin work the window, but she just couldn't. "Are you actually going out the window? How very Harrison Ford of you."

Chloe smiled at the comparison, but she was too nervous to actually laugh. "Yeah, people keep saying that the resemblance is uncanny," she joked. This was terrifying, in theory she could be brave and daring but now that all the cards were out on the table taking the actual leap was something else entirely.

She felt the irrational desire to explain herself, maybe simply wanting to have a few more precious moments with her cousin. "It's just in case I was followed, hopefully I can buy a few extra minutes." She knew it was silly and dramatic, but hopefully it would be effective. She straddled the windowsill, lingering for a moment to have one last look. "You were right," She said as she swung the last leg out and caught her balance on the fire escape. "This is one kick ass apartment."

Lois cracked a smile. "What'd I tell ya, cuz? And it's rent controlled too. Inflation be damned! I'm still paying what I was paying five plus years ago." Chloe nodded and wiped her eyes, disappearing from sight.

When Lois brought herself to close the window, her cousin was nowhere in sight.

Clark had been waiting in the wings, just as he had been doing for years. Chloe didn't even have to shimmy down a single step when he appeared behind her, scooping her into his arms. "You know, if it weren't for the extenuating circumstances and the possibility of death this would be pretty romantic," he said when she failed to speak. She leaned her head into the crook of his shoulder, and he could feel her smile along with the dampness of her tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm crying all over your flannel," she said, trying to contain the blubbering. "But at least you've got a whole wardrobe full of it at..." Her voice broke as she stumbled over the word 'home.' He didn't have one anymore, and she certainly didn't either.

"There's plenty more where that came from." He assured her, gliding through the air seamlessly. He used his peripherals to scan their surroundings. "We've got to go." She nodded, looking up at the sky before them hopefully. They landed, linking hands and stepping out of the alleyway. It was too early to fly off, visibility was too great and the stakes were too high.

And then it happened when they stepped onto the sidewalk.

**Tell me what you think!**


	39. Shadow of a Doubt

**Enjoy...**

It was an ambush, and there was no way to escape it. The couple was flanked on both sides and due to his heightened emotional state Clark didn't even sense their presence until a fraction of a second before the attack. They were barely out in the open before Chloe was ripped from Clark's arms and surrounded by half a dozen government agents, all with guns in hand and handcuffs at the ready. Twice as many men circled Clark, but he ignored them completely. "CHLOE!" he screamed, clawing through them with ease, as though they were no more than an annoying disturbance. They attempted to block him off, square him away from their primary target, but even though the barricade was twelve men thick they posed no challenge.

He forced himself to keep his strength down to a reasonable level, and despite the years of practicing self-control he endured, he had never found it quite so difficult to maintain the human facade. As Chloe was wrenched from him and the space between the two of them continued to expand he found a deep and implacable rage boiling in the pit of his stomach that consumed his entire being.

In the span of five seconds all that they had worked for seemed to be gone with no rational hope for return and self control flew out the window as Chloe and Clark were forced to move further and further apart.

She headbutted one of her attackers viciously, legs flailing as they tried and failed to restrain her. It wasn't from sheer strength or skill that she was able to confuse them momentarily, they were simply preoccupied with pulling her as far away from what they believed to be her steroid enhanced boyfriend.

Chloe's mind was in a frenzy of confusion and panic as she bit and fought to no avail, her wig wrenched from off the top of her head. All she could think of was Lex, and she felt a horrible surge of anger and betrayal course through her veins. How could he do this to them? To _her_? She knew that he hated Clark but she had actually been stupid enough to believe him when he said that he would help her. But it had all been a lie, a game to him...like it had always been. She didn't allow herself the pleasure of delving into a full fledged pity party, not only because she was being pawed by assorted strangers, but because she deserved it for trusting him after Lex gave her every reason to believe him untrustworthy.

One of the men gruffly yanked Chloe forward, bending her over at a ninety degree angle and clapping the cuffs on her wrists. She grunted in pain and was surprised to find herself suddenly released. She stumbled forward and was caught by the scruff of her neck; it wasn't until she was able to cast a glance upwards that she realized that Clark had not only broke the offender's nose, but his entire face. The agent staggered backward in pain, screaming in horrific agony as blood squirted out of his face at all angles.

"Contain him! _Contain him!_" a distinctly authoritative voice commanded and in the midst of her confusion Chloe felt a rush of relief. _They don't know..._even as she was being manhandled and read her Miranda rights she could be glad that these unfortunate morons were, at least for the moment, completely unaware of Clark's supernatural abilities.

She locked eyes with him, seeing desperation shining clear as the light of day. Her self-preservation instincts were geared in the polar opposite direction of what her brain told her. She wanted Clark to rescue her from this bleak reality and whisk her away and somehow make this whole mess disappear, but logic eventually and reluctantly won out over fantasy. With a manhunt currently underway for the fabled and infamous Superman, the only way he would save her from her inevitable capture and detainment would be to reveal himself, and that would only exacerbate their already substantial difficulties.

It took a long moment for her to realize what she must do, but that didn't make it any easier. She forced herself to keep her voice low, though in her current state of panic she could hardly focus on volume control. "Run. Get away, it won't help either of us if you get captured." He blinked and she leaned instinctively toward him. She wished that she could reach out and touch him, and he clearly reciprocated. Despite the mass of government agents milling around, dragging Chloe away and trying to isolate Clark, it still felt as though, at least for the moment, they were the only two people on that street.

She knew that he understood, and could see in his eyes that he was well aware of what the repercussions would be if he chose to act hastily. He still made no attempt to flee.

Chloe winced as someone pulled on her elbow and from her peripherals she could see that a vehicle was lying in wait. When they had her, the main objective, out of the way it would only be a matter of seconds before they fully shifted their focus to Clark and she couldn't let that happen. "Don't play the hero. _Run." _Due to Clark's extraordinary sense of hearing he could hear her over the hubbub whilst those inches away could not make out her words. It was as though time stood still as he processed this and a litany of emotions flitted across his face. For a long moment she thought that he wouldn't comply, that he would stay by her side even if it meant ruining all that they had worked for.

Out of fear that he might choose to ignore her, she spoke again. "Don't try to rescue me, you don't need that scrutiny." It would only make things worse if he were to reveal his super powers for all the world to see, even in this chaotic state he had to see that. The passersby stared at the spectacle and more than one had whipped their cell phones out and were clearly recording the arrest. How quickly would Clark make it onto the news if some camera happy tourist got an indisputable video of him duking it out with federal agents? They could never escape if it was known that he was Superman and she was his damsel in distress, the hunt to discover them would only be amplified and the likelihood of escape would diminish drastically...and it was already very low.

It was clear that he didn't want to leave her behind, but after a very long moment he tore away from the government agents, tossing the three that clung closest to him away like rag dolls. He made the feat look easy and entirely natural, twisting two arms simultaneously before catapulting away, legs pumping rapidly. When free, he sprinted off in the opposite direction but he met her eyes once more before disappearing around the corner. No one went after him, he wasn't a target and if Chloe had the sense of mind she would have taken notice of this.

The size of her arresting party seemed to be entirely unnecessary. She had no significant criminal record and she was of a diminutive stature and unarmed, but she figured that Lex and his mysterious benefactors wouldn't want to chance underestimating her...and he definitely didn't want to go in, guns blazing, after someone under Clark's protection. Three men wrenched her toward the awaiting police vehicle, most of her body hoisted off of the ground, tips of her toes scraping against the asphalt. While she was certain that they had relayed the reasons for her arrest in her current state she couldn't recall a single one.

Chloe felt oddly empty and her hollowness consumed her as they drove her through the downtown streets, no one bothering to consult her further. She wondered, quite detached, exactly what it was they were going to do with her. How soon could a jury of her own peers be made up, or would Lex find a way to sidestep this pesky little constitutional right?

In the very least, she could be grateful for the public spectacle they made of her arrest. It eased her mind slightly to know that, at least for the moment, they preferred to capture her in broad daylight with countless witnesses as opposed to disposing her in an infinitely more private manner. She would live, for now, perhaps be made an example of. Chloe hated the knowledge that she was once again thrust upon Lex's mercy like a weakling thrust upon the sword. She was forced by circumstance to hope that he hadn't revealed all of the details she had so naively let slip, that perhaps he would conceal the extent of their knowledge and the depth of their plan from whoever his 'superiors' were.

Perhaps it was silly and illogical, or maybe it was simply a defense mechanism that flared updue to her own inability to see the big picture when it came to Lex, but in spite of all of this she still didn't think he would divulge the full weight of her knowledge. They were thus far unaware of Clark's abilities, and being well aware of Lex's intense hatred she couldn't help but cherish a hope that all was not lost. She couldn't stand to be the reason for so many good people to fall, albeit willingly. They had given quite a few of their closest acquaintances access to this information should anything go irreversibly wrong. Their most powerful ally by far was Senator Kent, but even her title couldn't protect her if they failed absolutely. If these horrendous people knew, or even suspected that she had concrete proof of Lex's trespasses years prior they would certainly eradicate any potential source she may have shared that Intel with...starting with Lois.

Even in the depth of her cavernous despair she could feel a spark of hatred and anger dwelling deep inside of her. She couldn't even focus it, try to point it in Lex's general direction...she could only blame herself. How could she have trusted him? And now because of her own stupid recklessness, all she and Clark had fought to do and escape seemed to be all for naught. She was dead, because even at her most optimistic she still couldn't deny that eventually they were going to have her killed...unless the President had yet another scheme stored up his sleeve.

The handcuffs chafed her wrists, irritating her already bruised arm to the point of pain. This seemed to be a month for handcuffs, and none of her stints in bondage were recreational. Her eyes glazed over as the car weaved in and out of traffic. In her state of depressed confusion she quickly lost track of her location and the only thing that stopped her from dissolving into hysterics was the knowledge that Clark was nearby.

And he was, tracking the vehicle like a hunter stalking his prey. He pursued them with a vengeance he had not felt for years, running on pure adrenaline and yearning to just drop from the sky like a comet and demolish the front fender, brutally injuring the agents. When they were incapacitated he would be able to accomplish his primary goal in hoisting Chloe from the rubble, unharmed. But she had long since instilled a sense of logic in him that he could no longer deny or ignore, despite how badly he wanted to. Acting in such a ridiculously self-righteous and flamboyant manner would only serve to make the bulls-eye on the back of their heads even more pronounced.

He could see her, unharmed but shell-shocked and once again he forced himself to resist the urge to swan dive and save her. For as long as he could remember, Chloe had been the little voice in his head, interjecting unwanted but needed thoughts that saved him from exposure despite his reluctance to follow them. But she was right, of course she was right. He couldn't be the hero and expect them to get away. He refused to abandon their escape plan, but he would just have to wait until there was a less conspicuous way of rescuing her. But he had no idea when that would be, or if such an opportunity would ever present itself.

The car pulled into a parking lot nearly an hour later, stopping at the guard tower to flash ID before continuing on. Clark landed on the rooftop, employing his x-ray vision to keep a close eye on Chloe and the agents who watched after her as they rose two levels in the parking garage. The rest of the posse who attacked them seemed to have dispersed, but he wasn't interested in keeping tabs on them. Only Chloe mattered.

One of the men yanked her from the back seat with the finesse of a sasquatch, nearly dislocating her shoulder in the process. Clark saw red as she was dragged along like a rag doll and he memorized the offender's face for future reference. The officers hustled her into the nearby elevator and Clark considered whether or not this could be the ideal time, but then he considered the plethora of security cameras and other sorts of video recording devices and reconsidered.

He knew that they hadn't taken her here to merely dispose of her, and where they took her he couldn't follow but he would watch after her for as long as humanly...well, _super _humanly possible.

As he surveyed the scene he felt his phone buzz in his breast pocket and before it rang once he snatched it, saw that he was being contacted by an unknown caller, and picked it up. It was a disposable cell phone, of course, and whoever had found this number deserved to reach him. No matter who it was or what their intentions were he wasn't about to ignore anything at this juncture. "Hello?" he said gruffly, surprised by the impatience in his voice.

"Clark." It wasn't a question or even a greeting, it was a statement said through gritted teeth. Clark felt his heart jump and his stomach jolt, but he kept his eyes focused on Chloe despite his surprise.

"Lex," he said in an equally clipped manner. He had never felt so angry and helpless before, but he needed to keep his cool. Clark felt relatively certain that if he were to face the President at this current moment he wouldn't be able to restrain himself from ripping his head clear off of his shoulders. Wasn't it bad enough that he still had some almost ethereal hold over Chloe, that she had never been able to fully let him go? And despite this irritating power, he still couldn't allow her to escape from certain death. She had believed that he was capable of such selflessness, but Clark had known better. But he was just as guilty as she, he had hoped that Lex was telling the truth, that he would not be an obstacle. How foolish.

"Why are you calling?" he asked with an ample amount of sarcasm.

"I need to talk to you." It clearly caused Lex physical pain to request anything of Clark, but he did his best to push through the discomfort.

Clark felt his jaw clench and his shoulders tense. "Why should I?" He momentarily wondered how Lex got his cell phone number, it was a throw-away and virtually untraceable but he wasn't about to waste time pondering Lex's many resources. He wanted to crush the phone and toss the crumpled heap off of the building, but he knew that he couldn't. As loath as he was to admit it, Clark had no idea what to do and he was burning with curiosity. If it was simply his fate on the line he would be happy to ignore Lex's overtures, but when it was Chloe...he just wasn't capable of blowing off the one person who might ultimately save her.

He loved her. There was no ifs, ands or buts about it. Lex loved Chloe more than he had ever loved anyone or anything in his entire life, she had been the yin to his yang, she had acted as a perfect counterpart and her no-nonsense personality had taught him that he couldn't always get what he wanted, and that compromise was necessary to maintain a long-term relationship with her. Clark knew that if he thought there was some semblance of a chance that he could be with her again he would do anything to guarantee that. Lex wasn't a selfless person, he was actually just about as egotistical as they came but he valued Chloe above all else and all others. And while he didn't understand Lex's motives behind having her arrested, Clark was certain that he didn't want any harm to come to her anymore than he did. When they had been friends, Clark had saved his life countless times and Lex had helped him out as well before their relationship had turned to rivalry and mutual hatred, nut the one thing they still had in common was her.

"It's important. You know I wouldn't contact you unless it was absolutely necessary." That was an understatement. Clark knew that if Lex was bleeding out and on the verge of dying and all that he needed to do to survive was to call out Clark's name and beg for assistance he would most likely choose agonizing death.

There was a pregnant pause before he responded. "Your men have taken her." He could barely contain his anger and disgust and Lex inhaled sharply on the other end.

"I know," he said, but there was no sign of gloating or pride. He sounded just as defeated as Clark felt.

"How long until they have her killed?" It was hard to say, but he needed to rattle Lex.

"Not long. These people...they're not patient." For the first time Clark heard the bitterness and disgust he was accustomed to. "I need to talk to you."

Clark grit his teeth. "I'm listening."

He could practically see Lex roll his eyes. "_In person."_

"So you can have me captured and experimented on?"

Lex snorted. "Hardly. If I wanted you taken I would have informed the necessary people of your identity and you wouldn't be enjoying your comfortable perch above Chloe's prison." Clark scanned the surrounding areas, but had no idea how Lex knew his location. "Right now...I need your help." It was like pulling teeth.

"I don't particularly want to help you."

Lex quickly revised. "I don't need you to help me...I need you to help her. She's as good as dead if we don't do something." And Lex had him right where he wanted. Even if he had a net made up with kryptonite woven into the fibers, Clark would come nonetheless.

"Where do you want to meet?"

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"Where are you taking me?" Chloe asked, irritated but unsurprised when they ignored her question. These fellows weren't exactly the chatty type, but she was feeling too anxious to simply shut up. "Did I forget to pay a parking ticket? Has my registration expired on my car?" They offered her no response so naturally she had to up the ante. "Maybe indecent exposure?" That merited a quick glance. _Bingo_. "Am I dressed inappropriately? Ah, is that why I'm being arrested? Hmmm...strangely, I don't think I'm naked..." She looked down at her outfit, still padded, in mock confusion and was glad when she finally received a dirty look, it was better than the vacant stares and awkward silence she was being subjected to.

They went down four floors before the elevator came to a stop and she was once more roughly escorted off and pushed into a nearby room. It embodied every stereotype she had learned from years of watching different FBI films and Law and Order reruns, it was dark, sterile, with a long table in the center and a creepy man seated at the opposite end. He was middle aged and looked professional, salt-and-pepper hair slicked back, wearing a dull tie and a very white shirt under a well ironed tux. He had a pen at the ready and a sheet of paper laid out in front of him and she figured that he would be the one conducting their little interview...if it could even be called that. However, there was always that outside chance that he was more sinister than he appeared. Maybe he would blow her brains out.

Without a word she was thrust into the nearest chair and her handcuffs were brusquely unlocked. The cool-as-a-cucumber suit folded his hands neatly on the table and smiled. "Ms. Sullivan," he said graciously. Her stomach dropped in an odd mixture of relief and confusion at his conventional greeting. He definitely wouldn't be the one to kill her, there was still time.

"And you are?"

He smiled. "Irrelevant."

Chloe frowned. "Irrelevant? I didn't know that was a name...is it Anglo Saxon? Does that happen to be your first or last name, or are you like 'Cher'?" She was giddy with hope and feeling reckless. She knew that no matter what she said or did her fate was sealed...but a little thing like that wasn't going to stop her from giving this joker as little information as humanly possible.

Despite her best attempts, the man's facial expression remained as amiable as ever. "President Luthor didn't exaggerate your...willful personality." Chloe felt a rush of anger and disappointment at the mention of his name but did her best to remain impassive. It wasn't easy.

"What exactly am I being charged with?" She knew that someone had read her her rights and rattled off some lame reason for her arrest, but at the time she didn't grasp it.

"Conspiring to commit treason," he said without so much as a pause. He could have decked her right then and there and she would not and could not have been more shocked. Despite her best efforts to remain expressionless, she knew that she tipped her hand when her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. Her questioner shrugged with a semblance of sympathy.

"I'm afraid it's a matter of national security now, which is why you were handled by our special forces. Can't take any chances."

It took her a moment to find her voice, and if this asshole thought she would demur and be apologetic he had another thing coming to him. "And what proof do you have that I'm...a terrorist? This has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard and keep in mind that I am of the Chuck Norris joke generation." She felt the power in the room tip toward him and she was doing his best to knock him off of his guard. She wasn't accustomed to being at anyone else's disposal and she didn't like the feeling.

He continued with his placid smile and it started to piss her off. "Records obtained from your laptop and various work computers as well as calls logged on your cell phone to various...undesirables." She could hardly believe this, she was being offered a litany of evidence that was obviously forged. She worked for LuthorCorp, and Lex had already confronted her with faulty 'knowledge' of her allegedly breaking in to use the LuthorCorp computers. Check one. They had her laptop in custody for an insubordinately long amount of time and most likely were able to hack it afterwards to plant all the necessary evidence. Check two. And how hard would it be to use her phone to call these supposed 'undesirables' or even just forge the phone records? He was the President of the United States, it could be done with ease. Check three. And you know what they say about three strikes...

"And since it was clear that you and your..._friend _were poising to flee the country, which makes you a flight risk. You seem to have made enemies with all the wrong people so I doubt that you will be eligible for bail, and if you are the amount will be so astronomical that I highly doubt a journalist-turned LuthorCorp employee would be able to pay it." He had her there.

She gathered her thoughts before speaking. "Where am I being detained?"

For the first time, the man's expression faltered slightly. He hadn't expected such a reasonable question. "Here, for the present, at least. Until arraignment and trial but I expect those will go rather quickly. You are in quite a bit of trouble." And the understatement of the century goes to...

Chloe knew how these so-called 'trials' went, she had reported on more than one of them. With Lex's new regime she would be lucky to even get a trial by jury, especially due to the fact that he knew exactly how much information she had. She couldn't bring herself to believe that Lex would give everything up, but every time she allowed herself to think that he mentally slapped herself on the head. Her Lex-induced blind spot was more like a glaring disability, but it seemed impossible to divorce herself from her convictions...and that gave her reason to pause.

She had spent so long fighting against her belief that Lex was on her side she had never considered the fact maybe he was. As a reporter, she constantly had to rely on her gut instincts and they had rarely led her astray...why should this be any different? She was a good judge of character and sincerity, and she still felt as though he had leveled with her at the park. He truly didn't want any harm to come to her, and he had made it clear on countless occasions that while most of his actions were guided by self-interest his investment in her well-being wasn't a passing fancy. Having faith was a gamble, especially in someone as powerful and unpredictable as Lex. There was no logic or concrete evidence, but she didn't need it. Beyond reason or shadow of a doubt, she knew that Lex would fight to his last breath to help her, it was as ingrained in his DNA to help her as it was imprinted in hers to trust him. It may not have been the smart thing to do, but it was what she was going to do.

She needed to bide her time. She wasn't going to die here...she couldn't die here. Clark wasn't going give up, and neither would Lex. She wasn't about to be the first one to lose her confidence.

"Could you have someone escort me to my suite, Mr. Irrelevant? I'm tired and I don't feel like talking right now." Her interrogator shrugged and nodded to the nearby guard who hoisted her bodily from the chair and thrust her out the door.

"When you feel like talking, Ms. Sullivan, I'll be here. But you don't have much time." He glanced down at his watch for dramatic effect and she smiled.

"I'll keep that in mind."

**Tell me what you think!**


	40. Conspiring

**Here you go, hope it's a good one!**

As far as cells went, hers really wasn't all that bad. It wasn't what she had expected, there was no bunk bed or a butch roommate named Olga who had a lot of black arm hair equipped with a thing for Chloe and cuddling after the fact. The conditions were hardly reminiscent of prison movies, and she was luckily not forced to wear the cliched black and white ensemble. Vertical stripes were never flattering and just would not go with her complexion.

Her 'room' was an actual room opposed to what she expected, a cell surrounded by bars or some other cliche. There were cameras in each of the four corners, making it even more unlikely that she would ever be able to bring herself to use the nearby toilet.

Despite her protestation that she was too exhausted to continue being questioned, Chloe really had no intention of going to sleep when she was shoved into her quarters quite unceremoniously. With the fear of death hanging over her head as well as general anxiety concerning the condition of Clark and the motives of Lex, she didn't expect that she would be capable of resting yet the moment she laid on her lumpy mattress she lost consciousness, only to blink into awareness some time later.

The security personnel had confiscated her watch, as though they were nervous she could somehow MacGyver a weapon out of spare change and a wrist watch, so she had no idea how long she had been asleep. All she could discern was that her joints were sore and she was suffering from a bad case of morning breath, so she knew that her rest had been substantially more than a cat nap.

She was barely conscious when the door to her room flew open and one of the guards she knew by sight stepped in. "Get up," he said, voice brooking no refusal. She tried her best to suppress a jolt of annoyance, Chloe was accustomed to being treated with respect, or at least borderline civility, and she didn't take to blatant rudeness kindly.

She made a production out of rising from the cot, stretching and yawning theatrically, but within five seconds the man had seized her by the arm, clearly impatient and unwilling to wait, and firmly escorted her out of the room. He hadn't even allotted time for her to put on a pair of shoes or gargle with some mouthwash. Well, the only person who was going to suffer from her distinct lack of hygiene was her interrogator and she was more than okay with that fact.

They seemed adverse to change and thrust her into the same room she had been questioned in earlier, with the same man sitting in wait, wearing the same suit, though it was still pressed to perfection, even all these hours. She crinkled her eyebrow for a moment, but dismissed her curiosity. It really didn't matter how long she had been out or what they intended...at least that's what she told herself.

"Hello, Ms. Sullivan." Ah, the customary greeting. Chloe spared him a terse nod before she was pushed into what was quickly becoming 'her' chair.

She glanced up sharply at the 'gentleman' responsible for her treatment. "You don't need to knock me around like a rag doll. It's incredibly unnecessary." He didn't respond and simply stepped back. She would have like to think it was out of embarrassment, but knew that it was more likely that he was staggered by the potency of her breath.

"We just have a few questions for you. I don't need to tell you that answering these questions honestly and completely will be the best thing for you, the charges you're facing are no trifle matter."

Chloe shrugged casually, correctly ascertaining that her indifferent nonchalance would grate on him more than anything else, and as her interrogator grit his teeth together she realized that she was right. "Bring it." She had never in her life used that irritating and juvenile phrase, especially now that she was a professional thirty year old woman, but she made it her short-term goal to piss this obnoxiously vanilla man off and she was pleased by her success. He bristled slightly, consulting his papers briefly to offer some sort of distraction in order to compose himself.

Chloe knew that he was just trying to gather his thoughts and maintain his good natured facade. She saw something in his eyes that she hadn't previously noticed, maybe after the excitement of her apprehension and the stress of the situation she was unwittingly tossed into she hadn't been as perceptive as usual, but there was something in this man that she couldn't shake.

Despite her initial impression of him; bland and painfully average, there was something sharp and dangerous lurking beneath the exterior; she didn't like the way he looked at her when he thought that her eyes were focused on something else. He was scrutinizing...but not taking a measure of her or even eye fucking her, not that anyone would be inclined to do that at the present unhygienic moment, but it was more like he was regarding her the way a farmer might regard a pig before butchering it.

"What relationship do you have with the current President of the United States, Alexander Luthor?" As though she wouldn't know to whom he was referring.

Chloe pursed her lips, considering the wisest course of action. "I thought this was regarding my alleged treason, not the fact that I used to..._date_ Lex." Well, that was a drastic understatement but she wasn't going to go into intense detail.

He looked at her, eyes focused and expression unfathomable and if Chloe had any range of motion she would have taken a big step back. She couldn't believe how greatly she had initially underestimated him, but it was easy to see why she hadn't gotten a full scope of him. He was perfect, no one would look twice at him and this immediately gave him an advantage.

"It's not up to you to dictate the terms and agenda of our discussion, Ms. Sullivan. If you prove to be uncooperative we would be more than happy to put you into general population at the county prison until we sort out the details." That was an empty threat, she was a matter of national security and we be handled accordingly until they got what they wanted from her, but she pretended to be affected by his empty speech.

She nodded stiffly and he found it necessary to repeat the inquiry. "Now, what is the nature of your relationship?" Well, that was a loaded question. Where should she start?

"He is the CEO of LuthorCorp, so I guess he's my boss, or my boss's boss's boss's boss. He is also the President, of which you are well aware, and when I was in my early twenties and was a senior in college I started seeing him in a romantic capacity. As in, we had a lot of sex." She enjoyed watching the shock register on his face before he could rein in his expression.

"How long did your relationship last?"

She pretended to think back, as though it was so far out of her mind that she couldn't quite recall. Bullshit; she could tell him the days if he wanted. "About a year, give or take," she said, not about to make his job any easier. She was certain he knew all of the gory details, and was merely checking to see if she would lie about the easy details.

"What are the reasons behind your separation?" Good God, she had no idea this was going to be a trip down memory lane, but she complied nonetheless.

"There were plenty of reasons, trust issues mostly." It was a true but irrelevant detail.

He nodded curtly. "And what made you take such a strong stance against his political dealings?" he asked.

She smiled humorlessly, not sure what expression she should wear on her face. "I know him, and unlike most others I could see beyond the charisma and campaign promises through to his real agenda. I've always impartially viewed politicians, namely those in executive positions, and seeing as public opinion and the media are both on his side I figured I had to get my opinion out on the off chance someone agrees and is frustrated by the lack of objectivity in print and television. And I was right," she said, opening her arms with a smile.

Her interrogator seemed surprised by her honesty. She continued nonetheless, "not that it matters, I've adopted an unpopular position." She shrugged, as though to say _shit happens._

He nodded. "That's true, while you have garnered a large degree of respect in the journalism community for your talent when you developed this opinion you, in essence, prevented yourself from ever rising in the ranks beyond your menial job at the Daily Planet." Chloe felt a flash of white hot anger lick her insides, longing to burst out of her. He was purposefully minimizing her career as a 'job' and implying that her life's passion had been nothing more than a mediocre waste of time but she wasn't about to rise to the bait.

"I guess you could say that," she said when it was clear that he was expecting some sort of response.

He grinned, an oddly bleak and disheartening expression. "I _am _saying that, and what is odd, frankly, is the fact that the President would go out of his way to employ you at his company despite the fact that you are one of his few and most vocal dissenters. Do you know why he offered you a position?" She raised her hand to her mouth to cover her involuntary smile.

He had hardly 'offered' her a position, he had coerced and blackmailed her into being his employee. "I have no idea."

He took another tack. "When did you become reacquainted with the President?"

"Days before the Sun article, by that Caine guy, came out. He came a'courting an exclusive and I turned him down." She had done more than turn him down, but that wasn't relevant to the question.

"Have you and the President resumed your sexual relationship?" Chloe jolted backward in her seat, taken completely by surprise.

"No!" she responded instantly, not liking the tremor she heard in her voice. Her interviewer nodded with a self-satisfied expression coloring his face, as though she had confirmed something. The thought made her immediately uncomfortable. "Are you done asking me about Lex?" she asked, unable to conceal the irritation in her tone.

He looked up at her and shook his head. "Not nearly."

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Clark wanted to kick himself all the way to the the hotel. No...it was a motel, actually, and it wasn't exactly what one would call a posh establishment. He was surprised that Lex had proposed meeting at such a gritty location, but they accepted cash without requesting a credit card impression and that was just about as anonymous as one could be in this digital age.

This needed to be completely off the map, and in private...both prerequisites were next to impossible to fulfill anywhere borderline respectable. Clark felt oddly like a mistress as he weaved through the lobby and awkwardly requested the key for the room they had agreed on, feeling a flush creeping up his cheeks as the concierge gave him the once-over, a lecherous expression crossing his face. _Great_, he thought that he was Lex's gay lover. As though this needed to be even weirder.

"Have a good time," he said with a salacious wink and Clark nodded, feeling infinitely more awkward as he walked away from the concierge. If he could have walked away backwards inconspicuously he would have, but there was no way to do so.

Lex was already there, standing as opposed to sitting on one of the semen-stained beds, early, just as Clark had predicted. He knew that Lex would somehow feel as though arriving early would somehow give him the home court advantage, and Clark didn't bother to challenge his theory. Maybe there was some merit to it.

The moment Clark stepped forward he caught a whiff of cheap bourbon coming off of Lex in waves and he knew that he had been handling the stress in a nonproductive manner...drinking and pacing. Not that Clark was any better, playing out various horrifying scenarios in his mind, incapable of focusing on how to prevent Chloe from encountering such a fate.

"How long until your friends kill her?" Clark asked bluntly. No need to bother with pleasantries.

Lex looked at him for a moment before answering, gaze and hands steady. He held his liquor very well. "Not long, I was able to stop them from ordering an 'accident' straight off the bat by suggesting the arrest and detainment. Raul agreed in order to pretend as though he was doing me a favor, but I know that he just wants to suck her dry of information before they dispose of her," he said, shuddering.

Clark absorbed this with difficulty, uncomfortable with speaking in such a detached manner about someone so important to both of them, but he knew that it was necessary. He was marginally embarrassed that the man three sheets to the wind was capable of thinking more clearly than he could. "Who's Raul?" he finally asked.

Lex waved his hand carelessly, though it was clear from the look in his eyes that this person was no small obstacle. "He is a very powerful man who has long since believed that Chloe's death is inevitable. He may not look like a cold blooded sadist with the moral compass of a ravenous hyena, but that's exactly what he is. It's best if we sidestep him," he said hastily, and Clark realized how truly frightened he was of him and he felt an urge to pursue the subject. But Lex gave him a look that he wasn't willing to challenge.

Clark hastily decided to change the topic. "Will they bother with a trial?" Lex was shaking his head before Clark could finish.

"They don't want it to get that far, for now I assume they are holding her in a government sanctioned facility but when they feel a reasonable amount of time has lapsed they will put her in prison, where I assume an inmate will kill her or something equally as grotesque will befall her. These are not patient men, if there's a chance of exposure they will nip it in the bud, not bother to wait and see if it's a real threat at all." Clark knew that it must have been paining him to share this much information, but he did a good show of pretending the exchange didn't faze him.

Clark settled into a nearby moth-eaten chair, telling himself that it must be at least marginally better than the beds. "There's nothing she...or I could do to stop them?"

Lex started to pace, a sure fire indicator of emotional distress. "No, there's nothing anyone can do to get her out of there. I've exhausted every possibility."

Clark's face fell into his hands and he tried very hard to keep himself in check. "So why exactly did you call me? To gloat?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice level.

Lex turned and looked at Clark sharply. "No, never. I love her." As though that declaration was a magical Band Aid that fixed everything.

Clark squared his shoulders and sat up, ready for a fight. "So do I, but none of that really makes a difference, does it?" If Chloe had been there she would have told them to zip up their pants and compare measurements later, clearly suffocated by the excess of testosterone filling up the room. She definitely would have commented on their alpha-male tendencies, and both Clark and Lex knew that she would have forced them to focus on the problem at hand instead of continuing to bicker amongst themselves about things that were neither here nor there.

For a moment Clark thought that Lex would challenge him, insist that he had loved her more, loved her longer, loved her better and would have been able to help her and prevent this if he had been her confidante but he closed his mouth and the moment passed uneasily.

"I've tried everything I can do, in and out of the confines of the law but...I think you can be of help." Lex's face actually contorted as he spoke, he had long since conditioned himself to abhor every and any possibility that included Clark but there was nothing else he could do. Chloe mattered more than their petty grudge...and seeing as both had nursed that grudge for upwards of a decade it was rather important to them. Lex hating Clark and vice versa was a vital part of who they were...could either one of them exist without an enemy?

"If you..._we _succeed in saving her, what happens next?" Clark asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question, but Lex blanched and turned away from him.

"I think we should focus on the important part before we start dealing with insignificant details," he muttered, knowing that it was not much of a response but hoping that Clark would leave it be.

He wouldn't.

"_Insignificant details?_ Do you really think figuring out an end game for this mess is _insignificant_?"

Lex turned, his face as pale and stern as a chiseled statue. "That can wait."

But it wasn't going to. "I need to know what you're planning. I'm sick of this crap, Lex. A few years, hell, a few _days _ago I would have let you keep your mouth shut and we both would have operated under our own agendas. I know that we don't have the same finish line in sight. What are you going to do?"

It was a hard question to answer, and if the stakes were lower Lex would have deflected the question like the politician he was, but now was not the time for tiptoeing around the truth. "My 'end game,' as you so aptly named it, is the same as yours, Clark. There's nothing more I can do to help her," he said, and it was clear that admitting this was almost as difficult as seeking Clark out for help. "I'm going to have to let her go, what else can I do? Put her in a safe house, buy her a new identity, force her into a life she neither wants nor deserves? I'm not going to be her jailer, I have to let her go."

Clark was taken aback, completely stunned by this declaration and immediately distrusted him. Lex was renowned for his diplomacy and ability to get others on his side with well thought-out promises and a charismatic address. "Am I supposed to believe that after a decade of chasing after her all of the sudden you're going to give up?" he asked, the skepticism evident in his tone.

Lex boldly stepped forward, jaw set angrily. "Don't mock me, Clark. Do you have any idea how difficult this is for me?"

He shook his head. "No, I really don't. I've never forced myself into someone's life, blackmailed them into contacting me and quitting their job so I could keep an even closer eye on them, so no I don't know how 'difficult' this is for you," he said, clearly ready and gearing for a fight. He felt infantile and helpless and all he wanted to do was take his frustrations out on the one who was responsible.

Lex wasn't about to take this lying down and he stared at Clark with such a brutal loathing and it almost made the man of steel wince and turn away. "Yes, instead you play Batman and Chloe is the only person in the entire world who would be willing to wait in the wings while you exercise your ridiculously destructive fantasy."

Clark came to his feet in such a flash that Lex hadn't even seen him stir or rise, in the blink of an eye he went from immobile seated position to being fully erect. "I'm the one playing with a 'destructive fantasy'? You use your power without discipline or discretion and instead of doing what's best for her you try to manipulate her back into your life! And Batman doesn't have any powers, though I'll concede that he is a super hero!" he threw in at the last moment, blustering and full of rage.

"You're not a super hero, Clark, you're a pathetic juvenile in an adult alien's body with a hero complex. You're mere existence has put her in more danger than I ever could. If you're enemies ever discovered your identity...do you have any idea what they would do to her?" Of course he knew, it had been plaguing him for years. Even before he was in love with Chloe he knew that to any outsiders she would be his one real tie to humanity and thus his only weak spot. But Clark wasn't about to let Lex get away with casting that wide net in order to somehow abate his culpability.

"And yet we are all here because you allowed your murderous political friends to find too much out about Chloe. This didn't happen because of what I do, it happened because of what you _didn't_ do."

Lex stepped forward threateningly, and Clark followed suit. They were mere inches away from each other, and each had an overwhelming desire to attack the other. "Even if you had succeeded in escaping unscathed and unfollowed, what next? Go to a tropical island, hide out in Bruges so she could live out the remainder of her life on the lam and you could continue your vigilante work? Did it ever cross your thick skull that your extracurricular activities would only draw more attention to you?" he asked ruthlessly, leaning forward and up. Even with all of Clark's physical advantages, he still couldn't help but find him intimidating.

"I told her I would stop, that at least for a while I'd give it up," he blurted out and Lex blinked. For someone as guarded as Lex, it was the equivalent to his jaw dropping. The President closed his mouth, clearly whatever else he planned to say no longer applied.

He tried to redirect his thoughts, but found himself momentarily incapable. The flaming tension dissipated and Clark's shoulders relaxed infinitesimally and Lex took a step backward, massaging his temples and resuming his pacing. "What did she say?" he finally asked.

"She said no, that she wouldn't let me do that." A smile played on the corner of Lex's mouth when he heard that. Leave it to her to boss around a man twice her size with the physical capacity to hurl a meteor out of the earth's gravitational pull.

Lex knelt down to the sparse mini bar and pulled out a bottle, twisting the cap off with reckless abandon and taking a long drink. Clark wondered how many bottles he had downed, but that was neither here nor there. "That's Chloe, alright. Did she tell you to flee the scene?"

Clark paused before nodding. "Yeah, she did."

Lex let out half a snort of laughter. "She knows what the stakes are, and she tells her bodyguard to heave-ho."

"There were civilians," said Clark, quick to defend her. "She knew that if it was known that I was...Superman, the chance of us getting out of this mess would go from slim to none."

Lex looked up at him, eyes narrowed. "_Us? _Do you honestly still think that she believes that both of you are going to be able to get out of this still?"

Clark considered this for a moment before deigning to speak. "Yes, I do. She knows that I'm not going anywhere without her and that..." he trailed off, hoping that the increasingly inebriated Lex wouldn't call him on it.

But alcohol seemed to only make him more belligerent. "That what? Spit it out."

Clark cast him a dark look. He really hated him. "She knows you, better than I'd like her to." He would have liked to think that Chloe would be logical and blame Lex for her arrest, but that really wasn't her style. She knew what he was capable of, but she was also a woman who knew her own worth and she was well aware of the fact that Lex ranked her importance up with his own. Every fiber of his being was screaming that he avoid any course of action that alert Lex of this, but he saw no other viable method. This wasn't the time to let pride get in the way.

"Even after all of this, I'm sure she knows that you'd die before you'd let her suffer the same fate." And it was true, she may not have had fortune on her side but she had two of the most powerful men in the world batting for her...and that had to count for something.

Lex came to his feet after nursing the bottle until it was empty. He tossed it aside, quite an unLex-like maneuver. He was normally of a pristine nature, but it was becoming increasingly evident that he no longer gave a flying fuck about such insignificant actions. "She still loves me." He didn't know what reaction he expected from this cocky proclamation, but it wasn't the one Clark gave him.

"I know."

His admittance took away any of the joy or satisfaction Lex had hoped to experience, but he wasn't going to dwell on that. They stood in silence, neither venturing to make a stab at continuing the conversation or to take a seat on the beds. Clark could see exactly what was on that comforter and under the sheets, and he wasn't going near it.

It had been nearly five minutes of thoughtful silence before Clark spoke. "Do you really expect me to believe that you're going to help me save her and then just let her fly off into the sunset with me?" he asked.

Lex smiled, somewhat toasted. "No, I expect you to believe that I'm going to save her life so she can live long enough to realize that she doesn't love you anywhere near as much as she loves me and that she made a colossal mistake. It doesn't matter if it's in six months, six years or when she's 70 years old. I'll take her back," he said with ease. "Do you buy that?"

Clark absorbed that information for a moment and scooped up a bottle of the cheap malt from the bar as well. "Yeah, I buy that."

**Tell me what you think!**


	41. Contention

**Thanks to you all for reviewing! There are a few more chapters on the horizon but it is so strange to think that after all these years the story is finally coming to a close, and I hope you guys are still liking it!**

It had been hours, and her interrogator was still going strong. They had jumped from Lex to Lois to Lana...fully working their way through the L's before finally and absolutely landing upon Clark. Every time she attempted to question the relevance he would refuse to respond, instead flaunting his power and insisting that she had no right to question his methods. To this she vehemently disagreed, but there really wasn't anything she could do about it other than pout.

She was seriously starting to wonder if all of this was just a tactic to tire her out and force her to lower her guard in order for him to finally pounce on something that had some bearing to her predicament.

"How long have you known Mr. Kent?" he asked and she rubbed her eyes.

"Since junior high. We first kissed in high school and we repeated the ritual about every other year but we never started dating until right before I quit the Planet," she said, figuring that she knew what his line of questioning was going to be. He seemed quite preoccupied with her relationships and she wondered what a man so oddly sinister could care about who she slept with and at what times she started.

He smiled that cold smile that sent a shiver down her spine. "You finally seem to be getting the gist, Ms. Sullivan," he said. Though Chloe was at the time unaware of his name, Raul took great pleasure in questioning her intensely and watching the fire in her slowly dwindle to the point of extinguishment. He was a strict believer in the idea that remaining a nameless, powerful fantom would make him all the more sinister but Chloe was beyond being affected by such methods. For all she cared, his name was Gaylord and he was just embarrassed to admit to it.

She fidgeted in her chair, feeling stale and incredibly unhygienic. It felt as though it had been weeks since her last shower and teeth brushing. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, but her breath problem had only increased tenfold and her arms were stiff from disuse, the cuffs chafing her wrists uncomfortably. "The 'gist' wasn't so hard to get, why the hell you care about it is a whole 'nother story."

Raul opened his mouth to interject, but she pressed forward. "I know, I know, it's up to you to ask the questions, I'm the one who's in trouble here. You've said it all before and it's still just as annoying and _irrelevant_ as it was before," she said, borrowing his word of choice. "Get to the real questions and quit beating around the bush." As though she had the authority to make such a demand, but she was sick and tired of being subjected to immaterial questions one after the other.

"All of this is pertinent to the ongoing investigation," he said, voice turned as cold as his expression.

Chloe rolled her eyes, making pains to ensure that he saw the childish gesture. "How do my relationships have any bearings on my alleged treason?"

"It's not up to you to determine the relevance." This was quickly becoming his catch phrase.

She groaned, growing impatient and itching to piss him off. "You're like a broken record," she muttered. At least this cemented what she had suspected all along...it wasn't Lex's doing alone that put her behind bars. Even her interrogator knew how trumped up these charges were. She didn't want to entertain the terrifying probability that he was simply sucking her dry of intel before disposing of her.

Why would Lex allow her to be arrested without also informing on Clark? It didn't make any sense for him to do something like that...unless there was no other viable option. This man was going to try and kill her because of what she knew, and there really wasn't anything she could do about it.

"You know that I didn't do any of this ridiculous terrorism crap," she said, wanting to discern his feelings from his facial expression. Unfortunately he was more guarded than anticipated and only quirked a well exercised eyebrow.

"Why didn't you ask for a lawyer?" he asked, beating her on the most off-the-wall question front.

She knit her eyebrows together and moved restlessly. "Can you have someone uncuff me? I'm not going to try and make a run for it past the half dozen armed guards." Her interrogator sharply nodded and the person manning the door wordlessly stepped forward and freed her hands. Chloe cringed, flexing her fingers and massaging her wrists before replying. "You wouldn't have allowed me to contact one," she said with full confidence.

Raul surprised her by nodding agreeably. would have and could have side-stepped that little constitutional right without any difficulty. "I suppose I would have. There is always always a constitutional ame He ndment that can be created, where there is a will there is a way."

She knew that better than most. "With all of the government reforms Lex and his people have been pushing for it won't be hard to withhold my God-given rights. How will you skip over the right to a fair and speedy trials made up by my peers?" she asked and he blinked, clearly surprised by her ability to deduce so quickly. She looked up at the blinking security camera in the corner of the office. "I assume that's just for appearances, by now you have technology advanced enough to alter any security footage, should anyone so desire to see it after my...unfortunate demise."

His shoulders squared and lips pursed and that was the most overt alteration of his appearance that she had ever seen in these hours of interoggation. "You have quite an active imagination, Ms. Sullivan. Why would you think that?" he knew it was a leading question that she would never answer frankly, but he asked it nonetheless.

"It's become undeniable," she said.

"Your paranoia clearly knows no bounds," he said flatly, but even though their acquaintance was quite limited, she could tell that the inflection was all wrong. He had a clear set of talking points worked out in his mind that he knew forwards and backwards, and this willful defiance of his agenda was not covered. If she hadn't been convinced of Lex's lack of involvement before, she was now. This man simply hadn't prepared himself for her.

"How do you plan on doing it? You haven't fabricated enough evidence for the death penalty, so I guess it'll have to be something less legal. Hmmm, unexplained illness? Car accident, perhaps, while I'm being transported to my cell?" she bit into the last word vehemently, surprised at the potency of her anger. She thought herself calm and collected before she started to speak, picturing her corpse, cold and decomposing in some morgue.

Chloe wasn't detached, couldn't be detached from this ultimate and gut-wrenching certainty. Raul shook his head and said, "No."

"Then what is the plan, Ear Relevant? May I call you Ear? I don't know anything, I can't do anything and I don't plan on trying to do anything. So, if the ultimate plan doesn't involve my death then why are you bothering with me?" This in the very least gave him reason to pause. She didn't give him the opportunity to bullshit his way out an honest question.

"You've read my history, you understand my motivations and my style. When Lex was running for President I was too much of a coward to speak out against him and when I was still in journalism I adopted the unpopular opinion, but I worked for a somewhat obscure newspaper in Kansas for the love of God. The idea that I rocked the boat is insulting to those who actually had the guts to stand up against injustice instead of writing mildly controversial articles for a paper in the midwest."

He studied her face unflinchingly, clearly trying to decide how much he should say and how to say it. "You are an unknown and unstable variable, Ms. Sullivan. Try as he may the President couldn't find an effective means of controlling you and when it comes to you Mr. Luthor is, shall we say, unpredictable?" That strange and sinister stretched across his face again and Chloe forced herself to repress a shudder.

"So you're going to off me in order to keep your dog on his leash?" she asked.

He looked displeased with the broad generalization. "Well, I prefer to think of it in a less mercenary light, but you can digest it as you please." He wasn't going to protest the truth anymore, there was no reason to do so. "And why continue to conceal information that might lead to your freedom? Because at this point, you are going to die and I am going to take great joy in watching it occur." She gave him points for honesty and forced her expression to remain neutral. She wasn't quite as capable as this sociopath was at speaking of her impending demise so calmly.

"We're both adults, don't insult my intelligence with dangling false hope in front of me. I don't know anything, well, I don't know anything that I can _prove _at least. Lex does bad things," understatement of the century, "but you make him look like the Pope. And that's not easy to do," she said, clapping with mocking enthusiasm. What did she have to lose, anyway?

He tilted his head with controlled curiosity. "Do you know who I am?" There was no menace or pressing curiosity, it was just a question that he didn't even really care about. It didn't matter if she did, she was living on borrowed time.

She shook her head. "I don't need to. I can see who you really are in your eyes. You've wracked up quite the body count." His expression only altered infinitesimally, but she could tell that she had sufficiently shaken him.

"You do realize that I am attempting to do this the civilized way--" he began to say, trying to steer them back onto the right course, but she cut him off. She knew that it wasn't a wise course of action, but if she was about to die she was going without regrets.

"And how is that? Food deprivation, not allowing me to use the bathroom, asking monotonous question after monotonous question? If this is humane then bring on the barbaric."

He bristled, clearly flustered by her challenge. He had made a mistake, he never should have allowed the interrogation to deteriorate to this point. She knew that he was planning her death, what was to keep her in line now? A smile flitted across his face as he pondered this, and he straightened his posture. "Clark Kent is still loose, would you like us to detain him as well?" he asked, relishing in the crumbling of her expression. He had bludgeoned her with a boulder, and she wasn't able to maintain the facade.

"You have no reason to do so."

He shrugged. "He was clearly your accomplice in your attempt to flee. How did you intend to do that, anyway? No plane reservations, no rented car..."

She mimicked his offhand gesture, but hers looked less natural. "We were going to try our luck at the airport, it would be harder to trace. There was no warrant out for my arrest at the time, so he certainly wasn't an accomplice." This was true, he was looking for a hole but not finding one. Something about this Kent fellow struck him as odd, and he couldn't explain it. He had been relying on his gut instincts for his entire career, and he knew that there was something about Clark Kent that no one was mentioning.

"Why were you in a disguise? Why were you trying to leave your lucrative new career behind?" It took a long detour for him to finally hit the relevant points.

Chloe considered his questions for a moment, debating the merit of fabricating a good fabric of lies against simplifying the truth. It would be easier to use the reality of the situation as a template opposed to starting fresh. "Lex came barreling back into my life like a crashing plane. I'm sure you keep an eye on him, you know that he wasn't going to just let me go. There was no other option if we wanted to get away."

It made too much sense, and it made Raul uneasy. There was more to it than that, but he didn't know how much or what it was. "Does the name _Theodore Randall _mean anything to you?" he asked, trying to catch her off guard. If he had posed this question earlier perhaps he would have discerned some degree of surprise, but now she was ready for anything. Her eyebrows knit together in perfectly practiced confusion.

"Who's that?" she asked, doing her best to sound mildly curious, but not overwhelmingly so.

For a long moment she thought that he was going to call her bluff or tilt his head in a suspicious manner, but the moment passed harmlessly enough. "No one of importance."

This was a test, and she knew it. If she let it go, he would know that she was more than aware of who he was, so she responded in kind. "Well if you're asking me about him he's obviously of _some_ importance. Who is he?"

Raul frowned and shook his head. "It is irrelevant to the discussion."

"What does it really matter if you're going to have me killed in a matter of weeks anyway?" she asked.

His hideously average face broke out into an oddly animated smile. He slapped his knee, allowing a guffaw of laughter to escape his lips before he pursed them together. "Ha ha, well, I think you've misread your expiration date, Ms. Sullivan." And from his gleeful expression, Chloe knew she hadn't overestimated it.

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Clark leapt from the rooftop with such force that he left footprint sized marks in the cement, diving through the free and empty air with fury. He twisted and turned, body roughly avoiding a rogue tree branch. He allowed himself to plummet and for a long moment Lex thought that he was going to let his body crash into the abandoned parking lot like a meteor, but in the last millisecond he pulled up and landed on his feet.

Clark eyed the nearby tree, the one he narrowly missed colliding into, with such a rage that Lex was surprised when it didn't go up into flames. With most people that was simply an expression, but with him...it was actually a possibility.

Lex was certain that the area was secure, but the super boy insisted on checking for himself, only to find that it was indeed clean. That wasn't to say that there weren't rats, trash and used condoms littering the alleyway, but at least it was camera and bug free.

"He's going to kill her. That...fucking bastard is going to kill her," Clark said, choking out the curse word unnaturally. Hearing Clark swear was a rare occasion, but given the circumstances Lex understood the deviation.

"And he just told her that?" he couldn't believe that Raul could be so careless, but Clark shook his head quickly.

"No, no, she deduced it, insisted on it, and he eventually gave up pretending that she was going to get out of this alive." He leaned against the brick wall as Lex resumed his pacing. It seemed to be all he could do, walk a short distance before turning around and retracing his steps and then doing it again.

Clark wanted to grab him by the scruff of the neck and force him to stop walking, but he restrained himself. Without Chloe and with the threat of imminent death looming over them, it was harder to exercise self-control but he forced himself to do it nonetheless. _Nothing will be gained by strangling him...nothing will be gained by strangling him..._granted, it was an odd mantra, but it stopped him from snapping.

Never was there a stranger pair than Lex and Clark working together, especially seeing as they in all actuality only had one thing in common...and it certainly did nothing to unite them in most cases. But when she was in danger they were forced to get along, at least marginally.

"What are we going to do?" Clark asked, biting his lip hard to keep his voice level.

Lex stopped pacing and turned to look at him, contempt plain and clear in his eyes. "I can't formulate a plan until I understand Raul's agenda and how it is he plans on..." his voice trailed off, but Clark understood the gist.

He turned away and pressed his hand against the brick wall, closing his eyes tight and concentrating his energy on harnessing his strength in order to keep from pulverizing the adjacent building.

Lex looked at the display with a distinct lack of empathy. "Worrying is an unproductive emotion. You should put your energy toward something useful," he said.

Clark rotated his body, jaw set and eyes blazing. "Like pacing?" It was such an insignificant and throw away comment that it was hard to imagine that it could act as such a powerful instigator, and yet it did.

Lex stepped forward and Clark followed suit, and the tension crackled through the air. Lex clearly didn't care that he was glaring threateningly at Superman, and Clark was too tired to restrain himself. He wondered whether it would be considered assassination if he killed him in the heat of an argument but before Clark could complete that thought Lex backed off, clearly the more level headed of the two.

"Why is it that any time we engage in conversation we nearly attack each other?" Lex asked, rubbing his temples gingerly.

Clark considered this and shrugged, coming up with no reasonable response. "We used to talk in full sentences without the urge to kill each other rearing it's ugly head." That was true, but they both knew that a lot of things had changed from then until now. Not only had much time elapsed with several deadly disagreements, but they had to contend with Clark's abilities, their contention over Lana Lang and their wildly different temperaments. All of that was hard to get over and next to impossible to forgive, without the added variable.

"Neither of us was interested in Chloe at the point," Lex pointed out unnecessarily. They both knew that that was the straw that truly broke the camel's back.

It was painful to consider the years that Clark spent chasing a fantasy in the form of his high school crush, his first love. And when Lex entered into that competition, their preformed hatred solidified and became absolute. At the time it was impossible to imagine their relationship worsening, but then came Chloe. Now Clark could barely look at Lex without feeling the rising heat of rage bubbling in the pit of his stomach, and Lex felt likewise.

The truth was that Lana had been a transient but important part of his life, a person he cared for and yearned for but in reality she was just a goal rather than a woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. She had epitomized normalcy and humanity for him when he so desperately needed something to cling to. She was an adolescent fantasy that when transferred into adulthood made Clark think of a regular life without powers and without her constantly being thrust into the damsel position. He wanted what she represented, and at the time Lex wanted what Clark wanted.

Clark never understood what was so different about his feelings for Chloe, perhaps because he didn't care to examine his motives in the first place. She didn't equate to a traditional life in the way that Lana always had. She wasn't the 'wifely' type to fret over his priorities and be threatened by his desire to better mankind. She wouldn't be waiting at home with dinner ready, pouting because resolving another missile crisis had taken longer than anticipated and the couscous was getting cold. She wasn't going to make ultimatums demanding he give up his vigilantism or lose her. Being with her meant being himself, it wasn't easy and it wasn't always smooth but he had always and irrevocably loved her and she always loved HIM, Clark Kent and Superman, realizing that they were one in the same and to separate one from the other was to the detriment of the entire being.

He loved her for more reasons than he could list, but also because she loved him when he was just Clark, loved him when she realized that he was Superman and continued to love him as he struggled with reconciling his two identities with each other. Instead of realizing just how lucky he was to have found someone to accept him in his entirety he wasted years in pursuit of the unattainable, allowing her to reconcile herself to their 'platonic' friendship and fall in love with someone else. He was an idiot, and a lucky idiot at that because after all of that he finally had the woman he wanted to be with, with the small issue that she was slated for death and in a highly secure government facility.

"Yeah, we were both incredibly stupid," Clark said.

Lex didn't disagree. "You still are," he said, "did you really think that you could just flee the country and not incur any penalty?"

Clark gritted his teeth, how many times were they going to go through this? "If anyone could do it, it was us." And this was true.

"You're almost lucky she was caught," Lex said, and hurried along with his train of thought when Clark's glare intensified. "They wouldn't have given up, they would have pursued you indefinitely."

Clark rolled his eyes. "And you think they're just going to let us run off into the sunset without sending the army after us?"

Lex crossed his arms tightly against his chest and flexed his jaw in irritation. "You really only have one setting, don't you? You can't just scoop her up and flee," he said with exaggerated impatience.

Clark's eyebrows rose involuntarily and he shrugged. "And you have a better idea? I don't remember you exactly formulating escape plans when you were hitting the bottle." They had both felt rather hideous after four hours of sleep and quite a few bottles of cheap liquor, but neither had the time to indulge their hangover.

"Well I wasn't delving quite as deep into the pity puddle as you, Clark," he said scathingly, but his cohort ignored the insult, reconciling himself to the fact that they simply could not coexist without disparaging each other. "I have a plan."

"It would have been nice if you had decided to share," Clark said, trying hard to not sound petty and succeeding modestly.

Lex ignored his sidebar and considered something for a moment. "There are still details to work out, but honestly, I thought that someone who prided himself on willfully ignoring the law would have thought of it."

Clark knew he was being baited but allowed Lex to win for the moment. He didn't have the time nor the energy to engage in a battle of the wits. "What?"

Lex was pleased with his victory, though his satisfaction was lessened by Clark's willingness to acquiesce. Chloe would have given him a run for his money, no matter the circumstance. "We just need to fake her death, and all of those pesky little details will resolve themselves."

**Tell me what you think!**


	42. Good as Dead

**Thanks so much you guys for reviewing! It makes me a little sad that we're reaching the end, but I'm glad I have you guys along for the ride :)**

Lois rubbed her eyes, trying to chase the black spots from her corneas as she glared at her laptop. She hadn't been able to sleep for days, she had watched Chloe's apprehension on the late night news, less than a football field away from her apartment building. If she had looked out of her far facing windows she would have seen it, but instead she had to be called by a coworker at the Planet to inform her that her cousin was in government custody.

If it had been anyone but Chloe it was unlikely that the arrest would have been broadcast, but she had a lot of friends in the media who wouldn't allow themselves to be silenced. The authorities were able to squelch it from the six o'clock news, but by eleven more than one station ran with it, channel 8 paid through the nose to get the video from some kid's cell phone.

The only vindication in the entire ordeal was that the government agencies that tried so hard to keep her apprehension quiet and despite all of their palm greasing the story still slipped through the cracks. Lois typed furiously, channeling the Chloe inside of her. She never considered herself to be of a squeamish sort when it came to controversial stories, but she had to admit that she was a coward in comparison to her cousin.

She was on fire, and she knew that the language she used in her article was just about as unbiased as it came. Lois couldn't explain why she wanted to be so inflammatory, especially since she knew exactly what these government types were capable of. A psychiatrist might say that it reflected a death wish, but she wasn't going to waste her time getting analyzed.

The tide was turning, it may have only been in Kansas but Lois hoped that the ripples would resonate throughout the rest of the country. Chloe's arrest and lack of arraignment was a point of contention in the journalism community, and no one knew where she was being kept, a point that Lois brought up in her article.

She tried to call Clark several times, but the phone company informed her that his cell phone was no longer in service. Of course.

She was too enraptured to hear the first knock on the door, she had been focusing for so long that she blocked out any outside noise but the second knock shook her from her reverie.

Lois came to her feet, wincing as she stretched her sore legs and wobbled to the door, checking the peek hole before opening the door. "I didn't think you'd ever show up," she said stiffly, turning away from her guest and leaving the door agape.

Clark took that as an invitation and acted accordingly. "Lois..."

She ignored him, crossing her arms to her chest and straightening her posture. "You couldn't even make it off of my street," she muttered.

"Lois--" he started, but she cut him off.

"She trusted you and now she's in government custody!" she said, throwing her arms in the air in a style reminiscent of Chloe's and he was started by the similarity.

"I know..." but she wasn't going to let him get off that easy.

"You _know_? You planned on fleeing the country with little or no forethought and now she's hidden away in some obscure prison! I swear to God, Clark, if she..." it was his turn to cut her off, partially for the sake of time but also due to the fact that he didn't want her to finish that threat.

He sighed, "You're apartment's clean...for now, at least, so we can talk freely." Lois figured that he wasn't talking dust bunnies. "She gave you that folder, right?" he figured from the look of surprise followed by a flush of embarrassment that he was correct. "Do _not _publish it...at least not yet. She doesn't have much time but I am going to do everything and anything possible to stop them from..." he trailed off, unable to finish his train of thought.

Lois had no difficulty finishing it for him. "Killing her?" she said, voice unsteady.

Clark nodded, but it wasn't an easy task. "I want you to know that if you don't hear from me, everything's fine. No matter what you see on the news or read in the papers, if I don't tell you otherwise she's fine. _We're _fine."

Lois felt her brows knit together in confusion. "What if you're dead? Then you will be the opposite of 'fine' and incapable of telling me otherwise."

He felt an unwilling smile flicker on his face, and he turned away slightly, having no desire to explain it. The idea of him dying was laughable, but of course Lois wouldn't know that. "I can assure you that that won't happen. These people won't win, but we want them to think that they will," he said, being as vague as he could afford to be.

She tried to piece that together. "They want her dead...and you want them to think that they succeeded?" He smiled and made no attempt to conceal it. She was Chloe's cousin through and through. "If whatever harebrained scheme you're planning works, make sure she writes me a letter or sends me something, anything, so I know that she's alright. When should I make all of this information known?"

He considered that for a moment, though he already knew the answer. "Hold off indefinitely."

She took that in stride, though her face contorted in confusion. "This doesn't sound like something you'd think of," she said with her customary brashness. And it was true, Clark was like Lois in that way...he wanted to dismantle Lex, expose him for the world to see and let the truth reign supreme. He couldn't help but note the irony, he wanted the President to be revealed as his real self but he had spent the better part of a decade trying to keep his true face from exposure.

He had hoped that Lois wouldn't have the presence of mind to see how out of character it was for him to request such a thing, but luck was not with him. "You're right," he admitted, and that was all she needed to hear.

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly. "No." But despite her adamant refusal, she knew it was the truth. "Other than myself, there is only one person outside of you who would be willing to sacrifice everything to save her but that can't be...no, it's impossible," she said, though all the while her voice was strengthened with certainty.

Clark made no attempt to deny the assertion, and that was as good as a confirmation. She pressed her fingers to her temple and rubbed, trying to alleviate the headache she knew was imminent. "Do you know what you're doing? I can't believe it...you and _him?"_ It sounded like the premise for a reality show, and she would probably watch it if it was greenlit.

He nodded resolutely. "I can't do it by myself, and he'll do anything to help her."

Lois rolled her eyes. "Did it ever cross your mind that he has an agenda?"

He scoffed, "That was the first thing that crossed my mind, and it's still in there. But he...he'll help. He doesn't want her gone any more than I do."

"Really? I thought he was the one who set the whole thing up."

Clark shook his head. "It's over his head, and you know Lex. If he's willing to admit that something is out of the realm of his control then it's a very serious situation."

While that was true, he certainly wasn't the only one with that particular hang up. "Hey, you're not exactly Mr. Team player yourself." He opened his mouth to protest, stung by any similarity that could draw a parallel between he and Lex, but she didn't allow him to get a word in edgewise. "And I don't count including Chloe on your mysterious escapades as branching out. She's been your partner in crime since puberty," she said, more to herself than him. While this wasn't exactly true, it had taken him years to finally accept the fact that she was there for him through good and through bad...and to be quite honest, for a long time there was much more bad than good.

Neither had ever made the conscious decision that she would become, for all intents and purposes, his 'sidekick,' neither could deny the fact that she was indeed his de facto collaborator. Chloe had saved him from exposure, broken the law and violated her journalistic ethics for him. They had long since had a symbiotic save/be saved relationship and it was his turn...even if it meant he had to contend with Lex Luthor.

"I can't argue with that," he said, though from the tone of his voice it sounded as though he very much wanted to,

Lois nodded skeptically. "And why did you feel it necessary to come here and tell me all of this if you plan on playing hero, swooping in and rescuing her?"

The directness of the question gave him moment to pause and exercise some diplomacy. "I didn't want you to worry."

Her eyebrow creased and her head instinctually tilted to the side. "Why would I...oh no," she said, her chosen mode of revelation seemed to be denial followed by certainty. You're going to do something stupid and risky, aren't you? I should've known." But she didn't sound angry or disappointed, on the contrary she wouldn't have expected anything else.

Clark nodded briefly and stepped toward the door, even though he knew that there were no bugs, cameras or spies in hearing distance he still didn't want to reveal too much. "Be careful. Chloe will never forgive you if you let something happen to you."

She smiled. "Yeah, I know. You two aren't going to come back, are you?" she hated the desperation in her voice, but it was unavoidable. She didn't know what she was going to do without Chloe, what her life would be like without her unerring support and witty banter.

Clark smiled back, and she knew what that meant. "I can't believe that a year ago we were all working at the Planet together and now..." Her voice trailed off and she impatiently wiped the tears from her eyes. "It's just me."

He wanted to step forward and say something, do something, but he didn't know what and the moment passed without any sort of resolution. She turned her back to him and sat in front of the computer once more, waving hastily. He took the hint and stepped out the door, silently wondering when and if they would see each other again.

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Chloe was rather certain that the lack of windows, clocks and regular feedings were a way of attempting to keep her off kilter. She found it annoying, certainly, but apart from that she wasn't particularly bothered by the venture. She laid awake in her bunk for what seemed like hours, eyes focused on the stains on the ceiling.

She couldn't stop thinking about the inevitable...the future, _her _future, which at the current moment wasn't looking too bright. She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Clark was working tirelessly to ensure her rescue, but despite the fact that she knew him better than anyone else she still couldn't manage to convince herself that he would be willing to solicit or accept any help from the one most likely to be of assistance.

It would be of great peace of mind to think that Clark would be capable of casting aside their hostility, but the mere idea that one of them would be willing was very unlikely, and the thought that _both _would do so seemed nearly impossible.

They had left her to stew in her own thoughts, perhaps hoping to unnerve her or that the workings of her mind would have a paranoid inclination. They were very unfortunate indeed that she wasted no time pondering the mystery man's inquiries, he had let her known, albeit unwillingly, that she was slated for death and that her number was bound to come up quicker than a ticket at the butcher's shop. She had no method or means of escaping her unjust imprisonment, and it was not in her nature to sit around and wait for someone to rescue her. That was more Lana's area of expertise.

She didn't know whether it was a few hours or even days before they came back for her, perhaps they had grown tired of waiting for her to start crying, begging or pacing. Chloe wasn't about to make it easy for them, and when she saw the expression on her escort's face her stomach sank to the tips of her toes, but she accepted it. She was much like a lamb to the slaughter.

"Come with me," he said, voice steady and absent of emotion.

Chloe lifted her neck from off of the starchy pilow and tucked her hands beneath her head, mimicking a leisurely pose. "Make me."

And he looked just about ready to when the distinct pitter patter of footsteps sounded behind him. "Allow me a moment." But it wasn't a request, even if Chloe hadn't recognized the voice she could have identified the distinct tone of unmistakeable power.

Within a moment the lackey was gone and she was closed in with one of the most dangerous men she had ever had the misfortune of meeting. "Your fate is not sealed, Ms. Sullivan. If you are willing and able to offer any assistance whatsoever, I will definitely take that into consideration," he said, but his heart wasn't in his well-rehearsed speech. Raul was merely going through the motions, and she could understand that to some degree. He knew as well as she did that her fate was sealed and that there was no altering the fabric of inevitability. He begrudgingly respected her too much to put forth a genuine effort to lie.

"As much as I appreciate the offer, Ear, but I'd rather meet with an unfortunate and unavoidable accident." But that didn't mean she was going to make it easy work.

Ultimately it took three guards to drag her out of her cell, for a woman so small she was surprisingly difficult to maneuver. She forced herself to go limp, cringing in pain when she crashed to the ground but still glad to do anything to irritate her captors.

At long last they were able to get her into the least conspicuous car available, a cliched black sedan with tinted windows. If the situation wasn't so dire she would have laughed at the triteness of her transportation. Raul sat in the front, not bothering to cast a glance into the back seat at his helpless little captive.

"What's the official story?" she asked, and even in the face of certain death her innate curiosity could not be squelched.

For a moment she didn't think he would answer, and why should he? She was nothing but a pesky loose end that was about to be trimmed, hanging around much like an irritating little hangnail. But he surprised her.

"You are being moved to a secure government facility awaiting trial, seeing as you are a threat to national security naturally we must keep your relocation underwraps for the time being."

Chloe wondered where it would happen, when they would deign to put an end to her life. It was odd to consider her demise in such a calm manner, but she knew well enough that panicking would serve no good and she would not give her captors the satisfaction of seeing her unhinged. She half expected Raul to whirl around with a .45 and blow a hole in her head and then burn the corpse, but they were too thorough for that. With her dissent of the current fascist regime it would be natural for those who agreed with her to suspect some vast governmental conspiracy. They would have to do something that would seem like a tragic accident in order for everyone to really buy it.

She knew that 'they,' big brother, the powers that be, or whoever the hell these people were thought that this was going to be her final journey. She only hoped that Clark was ready...and as begrudging as she was to admit it, she hoped that Lex was too.

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Clark was feeling a bit like a lookout, scanning the skies and keeping tabs on Chloe's building but, as eager as he was to blame Lex for something, he knew that his abilities made him the only one of the two capable of doing so. He waited until he was absolutely, positively certain of the guards' intentions before he swooped back down to inform Lex.

"They're on the move," he said the moment his feet touched the ground, and his counterpart nodded gravely.

"By now they've realized that she can't be intimidated or otherwise coerced into giving them information on me or anything else."

Clark's face contorted into a pained expression. "What's the game plan?" he asked as Lex moved toward the car, revving the engine.

"You follow her your way, I'll follow mine."

Clark rolled his eyes. "Wow, this sounds like a brilliant idea to me."

Lex's eyes cut to him and through him. "You've got a better plan?" Clark didn't respond, "That's what I thought."

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The ride was virtually silent, and Chloe was more than okay with this. She kept her eyes level, not daring to venture a hopeful glance into the sky. They were driving for less than a half hour when she noticed that the driver kept glancing into his rearview mirror. Instead of being comforted by the safe distance the cars behind him were keeping, he looked panic stricken after a few looks, eventually concentrating more on the mirror than the road stretched ahead.

"What's wrong?" asked Raul with a trace of irritation.

The driver cast another glance backward and frowned. "I think we're being followed." Clark wouldn't be pursuing them via vehicle, so that only left...

"Luthor," Raul muttered darkly, voice so low that Chloe couldn't be certain that it was what he really said.

This was getting interesting.

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Lex felt silly with a walkie-talkie in hand, but it was government issue and much safer to use than a cell phone. He was a safe distance behind the car, but as the sedan swerved and rapidly changed lanes, he frowned grimly.

Clark's voice came from the small black box. "You've been spotted." _No shit Sherlock. _He thought darkly, and the boy wonder seemed to have correctly interpreted the icy silence.

Lex remained safely in his lane, they had managed to put a trace on the car anyway if there was to be a detour. "Oh, damn," he said aloud, though the walkie-talkie wasn't turned on and he didn't share the sentiment with Clark. There was a traffic jam, and the car transporting Chloe was able to get into the tunnel ahead before the gridlock. He didn't like them being out of sight.

"You're sure that they wouldn't stage a car crash?" Clark asked with a nervous edge in his voice.

Lex couldn't be certain, but he was relatively confident that they wouldn't do that, he pulled the device to his lips, held down the button and spoke. "Raul is in the car, and he wouldn't risk his neck for anything," he said, trying very hard to sound absolutely convinced of this.

Not that he would ever admit it, but Lex was mildly impressed by Clark's ability to stay hidden from passersby and the air traffic patrol, but he had years of practice and it came as second nature to him now. "Oh no, no, wait..." Clark said, and Lex felt a jolt of panic grab him in the pit of his stomach.

"What? What's going on?" he asked, absolutely abhorring seeking Intel from _him, _but there was no other viable option.

Clark didn't answer and the line of traffic inched forward. Lex craned his neck, but his visibility was still poor.

"Oh god." Lex didn't like the touch of desperation in his voice, he could tell from those two words that there was something horribly wrong.

"WHAT?" he asked, no patience for playing a guessing game.

He heard the click indicating that Clark had turned his walkie-talkie back on and Lex could hear him inhaling unsteadily. "They're gone. The car's abandoned. They're gone."

If Lex's foot hadn't already been poised over the break he would have undoubtedly plowed into the car ahead of them. They both knew what this meant. She was good as dead.

**Tell me what you think! Sorry for the cliffie but it was necessary ;)**


	43. Russian Roulette

**Thanks so much for reviewing, those of you who did, it means so much! I hope this next installment doesn't disappoint. I apologize in advance for making up landmarks, routes and geography, I hope it's not the the story's detriment. As an apology for taking so long on some of my updates, this chapter is super sized! Hope you enjoy :)**

When they had driven into the tunnel, Chloe hadn't really thought that there was any need for panic...well, at least any more panic than what she was already experiencing. Like most intense emotions after a while even paralyzing fear ran out of steam and numbed her after extended exposure. It was a main road and the traffic jam was to be expected given the time of day...from the level of the sun in the sky, she assumed it was supper time and when she strained to look at the digital clock she could make out the digit '5' so she knew that her estimate was on target.

She looked at the door handles, itching to pull one and roll out of the car. Would Clark be watching? She already knew the answer. And unfortunately she also knew what he would do if she were to somehow momentarily escape. Without considering the consequences, or perhaps despite common sense, he would swoop down and rescue her. And for the time being, she was willing to risk it.

Chloe knew that the doors were locked, probably the passenger doors were disabled and could only open from the outside, and she was hardly of any size or had the strength to use herself as a battering ram. They would stop her, shoot her perhaps with something to knock her out but they definitely wouldn't use a real bullet. Too many questions would be asked if she died 'accidentally' with a bullet hole in her knee or foot. At least she was safe from that particular brand of assault.

There hadn't been any whispering or furtive glances in her direction and from Raul's relaxed body language and the driver's preoccupation with the possibility of a tail she hadn't expected it...but that's just when he sprang. Raul whirled around, not frantically or with a single jerky or impulsive movement, and pressed a damp rag to her nose and mouth. How did he prepare the solution without alerting her? He must have carried it in a container...she hadn't smelt any chemicals.

Each gesture was fluid and premeditated and if it were not for the circumstances she would have been impressed by his grace. She didn't even have a moment to struggle before everything went fuzzy and her vision sharply declined. But not before she could think, _chloroform? What a cliche._

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As Lex sped down the interstate, praying that no patrolmen would catch him so blatantly flouting the law, he felt the world rapidly collapse around him, swallowing him whole and refusing to regurgitate. He could hardly bring himself to consider his public persona for the time being, he had much bigger problems. The breaking news report still rung clear as a bell in his head, resonating in every corner of his mind.

"Dozens of motorists have recently phoned in calls concerning the severe damage of a local tunnel. I have a caller on line two...you're on the air with Donny Daily. What's happenin' in the Heartland?" he was barely able to complete his corny catch phrase before the panicked caller began jabbering.

"Oh god, oh god, love you're show, by the way. Listen every afternoon on the way home...I think a meteor might've crashed into the tunnel on route 111 through Wichita...ah, it was like an explosion, crashed straight through the metal. You should see the hole...it's like a crater or something."

Donny chuckled indulgently and if Lex had the opportunity to formulate an opinion on the radio deejay he would have found him arrogant and patronizing, but he wasn't listening the the radio for Donny Daily. "And is there a steaming molten rock in there?" he asked in what Lex was sure Donny thought was a charming voice.

"No, no, there's nothing but the traffic has come to a standstill, a lot of people are out of their cars and looking at the damage. It's really amazing...what could have done this?"

What indeed.

Oh, Clark. Lex wanted nothing more than to be enraged at his stupidity, barreling into such a public place like a child in the midst of a tantrum, risking his identity in order to indulge a whim, but he couldn't reach the desired level of anger. Perhaps because he wished that he could crash into a tunnel too, to somehow find a cathartic way to distract himself from the overwhelming internal pain. His stomach was twisted in knots and he had never before in his life felt so weak. Ever since he had become reacquainted with Chloe he found himself constantly thinking that, but this topped every other instance significantly.

He was at someone else's mercy...and Raul had no mercy.

Lex wanted to hit something, even someone. As Donny chuckled and made a corny quip, moving onto another caller who was in a similar state of confusion, Lex felt an overwhelming desire to floor it and crash into the radio station, but he couldn't waste time killing an irritating deejay. Never before had he been so indifferent to his public persona. Lex had no idea how Clark fled from the scene without being seen, but Clark was notorious for wriggling out of sticky situations unscathed, and for the first time in a long time Lex was glad for it.

Lex continued to drive blindly, zipping down the interstate without any real idea of where to go. He had started driving in a panic, desperate to escape what was certain to become gridlock traffic and he had been flooring it ever since. He had no course of action, what could he do? That bastard Raul had outsmarted him once and for all, and Lex found himself thinking of creative and gruesome methods he wished to employ in order to get revenge. But even that would be nothing, mean nothing, in comparison to losing her.

There was a hitchhiker in the distance and it took a moment for it to register that the man was Clark. Lex slowed down reluctantly, successfully fighting his desire to speed up and crash into him. It would have destroyed his car and Clark would be left unscathed, but it certainly would have been satisfying. He unlocked the doors with the push of a button, scowling irritably as though the motion took a great deal of effort.

Clark flung the door open dramatically and slid into the seat, barely managing to close the door before Lex accelerated dangerously. Clark reached around to seatbelt himself in and Lex's sideway glance suddenly sharpened into disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said, anger momentarily dissipating.

Clark's eyebrows knit together as he was pulled out of his state of brooding. "What?"

Lex scoffed, eyes flickering from the road to his passenger. "A _seat belt_? You can't be serious."

Clark fidgeted in his seat and looked down, still puzzled. "Why on earth would someone who can survive any foreseeable physical injury utilize a _seat belt_?" Lex asked, clearly bewildered.

Clark opened his mouth, eyes flashing dangerously before he considered the question and all of the hot air escaped from him like helium from a faulty balloon. "Chloe," he said simply, and that sobered Lex up quickly. "She said..." the corner of his mouth twitched, "that even though I couldn't get hurt, it didn't mean I couldn't be a good example for people who could." And for a moment, the two men who loved Chloe Sullivan smiled at the same time, without a trace of irony or derision. It only lasted for a beat before Clark's smile turned downward as the weight of their predicament pushed him and Lex remembered that he hated Clark.

"Why exactly did you careen into a public bridge in broad daylight during a high tension time?" Lex asked briskly, having considered exactly how to word this question for the duration of the car ride. A week ago he would have shouted, perhaps flailed his arms, threatened his secret and insulted his intelligence but he didn't have the energy anymore. He never would have thought that the day would come where he didn't feel up to insulting Clark, but he also didn't believe that the time would ever come when he and the boy wonder would working toward a common goal instead of working against each other, but it seemed that hell had indeed froze over.

Clark didn't react negatively as Lex had expected, and this annoyed him more than anything else. He wanted to believe that he had some concept of what was going on, that he still possessed some form of cognitive ability, and he hated being disappointed. "I just...can't explain it. I...it was so incredibly stupid," he said, and Lex felt deflated for a moment. He wanted to be the one to point out the idiocy of his impulsiveness, but he was beaten to the punch.

So he settled for agreeing with him, somewhat morosely. "Yes. Very stupid." They sat in an immensely uncomfortable silence as Lex drove onward, not sure of his destination but incapable of just sitting there and doing nothing. "And you saw nothing?" he said, knowing that it must be the case but still wanting some form of information. He couldn't stand feeling so useless, so wholly and completely..._weak_.

"No, nothing. They could've switched cars, used the sewers. They were gone. I was too late." But there was steel in his voice, a strength that Lex didn't recognize.

"Yeah, you were," Lex said with unnecessary sharpness. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Clark toss an annoyed glance his way, but he didn't comment. _Damn it. _He wanted conflict, a fight, something, anything to take his mind off of the numbing pain. Maybe Clark realized this, knew that he needed some kind of release and was refusing to allow him to vent. In the logical corner of his brain he knew that this was an irrational and paranoid thought. Imagining that Clark possessed the skill to effectively disable Lex's method of catharsis meant assigning him with intelligence that he did not have.

This was a situation he had never thought to prepare for. When working in a high pressure situation in politics he could work through and assess the pros and cons, always able to stay detached to a certain degree because it was his job and most of his decisions didn't directly effect him. There were enough middle men in the midst of the pool to find an easy scapegoat, but now the only buffer between Chloe and death was him and Clark, and to call this fact unnerving was a drastic understatement.

Lex was not a selfless man, he operated for his own best interest the vast majority of the time, and he was blessed with the ability to talk himself up and out of precarious situations, but in this situation that ability was useless. Apart from himself, Chloe was the only person on the world he would risk anything for and she was on the precipice of certain death, dangling by a thin and careworn rope that was slipping with each passing moment.

All that romantic drivel about 'better halves' and whatnot had never seemed relevant to him before, and only now did he see that it had a little, but only _some _merit. If anything were to happen to her he didn't know what would happen. A world without Chloe wasn't a world he wanted to live in, and while in his career it paid to have a certain distance from others there were also some detriments that he had never before considered. He had staked all of his happiness on one person, a single, fallible being that could die by the manipulations of Raul and those he represented just as easily as she could perish in a car crash. Her life was something that he couldn't fathom gambling because despite all of his wealth and power...both of which he esteemed above nearly everything, when it came down to it she was the only thing that mattered.

He knew that he couldn't reassign the emotions or compartmentalize them as usual. This wasn't a chess game, he couldn't manipulate his position to gain advantage. This was Russian Roulette, and it subsisted entirely on chance. Either they would get to her in time...or they wouldn't. There was no third option, and there was nothing Lex could do to improve the odds. Whenever Chloe was involved, his usual defense mechanisms went to hell in a hand basket.

"Where are you going?" Clark asked gruffly, and Lex didn't miss the singular pronoun or the attempt to change the subject.

Lex hesitated to answer, the truth was he didn't have an itinerary, a plan of rescue or a method to procure that small miracle. He and Clark had banded together, united against one enemy and for a particular purpose. Wasn't that remarkable enough? There just wasn't enough miracles in the world when you needed them. "I'm keeping on the main road, hoping to see something."

To Clark's credit he didn't jump down his throat and slap him silly for such a horrid and unproductive 'plan,' if it could even be called that. But Lex could hear his measured breathing and knew that he was on the verge of exploding. _Good_, a small and destructive voice in the back of his head said. He wanted explosions, he wanted screaming and destruction. He wanted to inflict as much damage on someone, anyone, as was being inflicted on him. He wanted to pointlessly break things and make the whole world look as ugly as he felt. He wasn't like Clark, he didn't develop a martyr complex when the going got tough, he wanted to see the whole world burn. Smell the burning flesh, revel in the chaos and destruction because no matter what happened to the rest of the human population, it would be nothing compared to the torment he felt. Even if the boy wonder reached inside of him and played his spine like a banjo it couldn't possibly hurt the way this did.

It wasn't productive, and it sure as hell wasn't mature, to wish that he could expose others to the weight of his feelings in order to unburden himself, but it was the only possible method he could imagine to alleviate the unrelenting pain.

"So, just to get this straight, we are driving around aimlessly hoping that a flashing sign reading 'Chloe Sullivan captured this way' will lead us in the right direction?" Clark asked through gritted teeth. It was easy for him to be calm and rational, he had just cost the state of Kansas over a million dollars in damages whilst working through his anger issues!

"You've got a better plan?" Lex snapped, rearing and ready for a fight, fully equipped with the knowledge that Clark was, for once, right. But that was irrelevant. He didn't want to think rationally, he just wanted to lash out.

Clark opened his mouth, but stopped himself before speaking. Lex nodded, trying to put on an air of satisfaction while he was just extremely annoyed that Clark refused to argue with him. "That's what I thought." But the words sounded hollow.

Lex didn't want to face the reality that, for all intents and purposes she was really and truly gone. They had screwed up. They had lost her. And the only thing that was keeping him from plowing into a telephone pole going 90 miles per hour was the slim possibility that somehow, some way, the impossible would happen. And even if Raul were to succeed, Lex wanted a shot at him before it was all over.

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**FLASHBACK**

Lex couldn't capture the moment, the hour or even the day when he realized how he felt about her. If asked, not that he would answer anyone apart from Chloe, he couldn't even pinpont whether or not this was because the feelings came on so suddenly or they had been planted long ago and slowly came to fruition. Their casual meetings became planned excursions, and even though she made a very evident attempt to keep it casual, there was no point denying it.

As he walked from the parking lot, still slightly chafed by the fact that the movie theatre didn't have valet parking, he wondered in a detached manner if he was sick. He felt oddly lightheaded, his palms were sweating profusely and saying that he was anxious was an understatement. He instinctively smoothed his shirt, though in keeping with the casual theme he traded in his customary tie and blazer for a long sleeved tee shirt. Despite his characteristic bald head, whenever he dressed down the chances of him being recognized were slim to nil. He didn't understand it, perhaps people just weren't accustomed to seeing public figures famous for their impeccable taste wearing khakis and a shirt from the Gap, but he couldn't argue with results.

It wasn't until he saw her, waiting in the lobby with her arms crossed looking upward that he realized that he was actually, honest to god _nervous _about seeing her. He wiped his hands on his pants and mentally scolded himself for being so childish before stepping into her field of vision. Her face broke into a wide smile as she stepped forward, two tickets clutched in her hand.

Back then she had worn a pixie cut, short and funky and very college-esque. He knew the moment he assessed her outfit that she hadn't changed since work, she was still wearing stilettos and dress pants with an unremarkable but professional looking top. That was one of the many small things he liked about her, she didn't play the game, rush home to throw on something new. She didn't have a dating behavior, she was genuine from the tips of her nearly spiky blond hair to the soles of her arched feet. She looked as comfortable in heels as she did in sweats and he knew that she wasn't the type to assess what she was wearing in direct contrast with Lana.

He'd be the first to admit it, he didn't want another Lana. Lex hadn't set out to find the anti-Lana, and Chloe certainly wasn't her polar opposite given their similar taste in men, but instinctively he found himself more interested in Chloe than he ever would have found possible. She was sure of herself for the most part and for as long as she could remember she knew what she wanted and tried to get it. Of course she had met with failure time and time again, but that didn't err her from her objective. Instead of shying away from it, she embraced her curiosity as an asset instead of a fault and she found a career path that was compatible. There wasn't much he didn't admire about her.

He opened his mouth to protest to her having purchased the tickets, years of wining and dining women made the mere idea of a date shouldering the cost of an excursion, even a trip to the movies, seem completely ridiculous. Then again he had always taken up with women who expected, in some degree, to be treated and Chloe was nothing like that. But she shot him down with a look, mouth tightening into a firm line that he was quickly discovering meant that there was no arguing or reasoning with her.

"I took the liberty of getting these," she said with a smirk, handing him his ticket with a slight flourish.

He quirked an eyebrow. "And why, exactly, did you take this task upon yourself?" he asked.

"Well, I didn't want them to sell out while I was just standing around counting the tiles on the ceiling."

Lex glanced over his shoulder and looked around. "Hmmm, I don't really see that being much of an issue on a late Tuesday afternoon for a mediocre movie." She swatted his arm, but he caught her grin and it made his stomach do an odd, but not unpleasant, turn.

"C'mon, the mediocrity fest is going to start in T minus four minutes. You like to live dangerously, Mr. Luthor?" she teased as they walked past some pimply faced kid checking tickets and toward their theater.

"You have no idea," he muttered, and she took that to be a joke though she knew there was something substantial to it. Only days ago had he made Raul's acquaintance, and he still shuddered whenever he thought of him. He had never met a man so cold and calculating, and he was in politics.

For such a small woman, she had a quick stride and seemed to have no difficulty keeping up with him. He kept noticing little things that he never cared to realize before, like the way she walked with such a purpose even when they were just heading toward a theater or the way she bit on her lower lip when she was nervous or particularly thoughtful. "I got carded," she said, startling him out of his analysis.

"Really?" he said with not-entirely-genuine surprise. Sometimes she just seemed like a walking contradiction, so many physical attributes, like her height and hair, made her appear younger than she was while the hard look she got, triggered by the oddest things that he could find no link to as of yet, made her seem years older. There was a look about her that made him feel as though she had seen and been through a lot, and he couldn't understand why.

She seemed to sense his accidental sarcasm and nudged him. "Yeah, I'm old enough to drink but I still get IDed at the movies. Go figure." She didn't sound annoyed by this, more amused than anything else. Lex was sure that she used her appearance to her advantage in the line of duty. He could easily imagine her painstakingly lowering her interviewee's guard without them even noticing, something that hardened professionals couldn't do half as well.

Chloe picked the seats, and there were a fair few to choose from. Lex had been right, apart from themselves there were only four other people lurking in the theater. "Do you think we'll be able to find a place to sit?" he stage-whispered with faux anxiety, instintively placing his hand on the small of her back as she navigated through the aisles to find the perfect pair of seats. He felt her back vibrate with silent laughter and it made him want to linger, but he forced himself to retract his hand as they settled in.

"I hear it's awful," she said quietly, and it took him a moment to realize that she meant the movie.

"Is that so?" he didn't doubt it. It looked like a chick flick disguised as a political thriller, and she had been the one to suggest going anyway and he thought he knew why.

She nodded resolutely. "Yeah, I checked Rotten Tomatoes and it's nearly in the negatives."

"I didn't think that reviews could be negative."

He couldn't tell from the level of darkness, but he thought he saw her smile. "They can't, I was exaggerating. I'm a reporter, it's in my blood."

"Do you have a tape recorder hidden under the seat?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, it's in my purse. I didn't want to chance you demanding we get aisle seats you prima donna."

It was his turn to laugh, albeit quietly. They both knew it was the height of rudeness to speak during a movie, even when the nearest viewer was rows away and the previews had started. "You've got my number alright. Any scandals you'd like me to talk about?"

"You can make some up if you want," she suggested, "entirely up to you."

He shrugged, noncommital. "I'll leave the details for you to sort out, but I'm thinking extortion. Throw some sex in there, just for the fun of it." He was joking, but the word sizzled in the air and he couldn't take it back. He didn't understand what it was, but he had never encountered a similar situation in his many years playing the field. They were so wrought with tension that it was almost painful to be within inches of each other, but they hadn't even kissed yet. There were sparks, oh were there sparks, but there was also such an easy banter that existed between the two that it was hard to balance the conversation and the desire to touch her every waking moment.

It hadn't always been there, but at some point in their reacquaintance their flirting had crossed a line that they could never come back from without any notable physical contact. The chemistry was undeniable, and yet both of them continued to leave it unaddressed, like a wild animal trapped in a rickety cage. It was only a matter of time before something broke, and Lex privately thought that this would be a good thing. He didn't know exactly how it happened, but he was quite certain that despite the casualness of their meetings and the undefined state of their relationship he would be unbelievably livid if she were to go out with someone else.

Chloe kept on suggesting meeting for dinner or lunch at cheap and unromantic places, at the movies, at the park so they would take their own cars and leave separately. He didn't quite understand it, but neither of them had yet to mention it and with each pleasant passing encounter he grew increasingly nervous about what it meant.

Was she not interested in him? No, he didn't believe that...or wouldn't. Did she just want some sort of pseudo-platonic relationship like the one she juggled with..._Clark? _Even thinking the name made his teeth instinctually grit together. Whenever he started to feel this way about a woman, regardless of the fact that it had only been once or twice before, he went down the predictable and self-destructive path, including rampant paranoia. But what if it was even worse than that? What if she and _him _were together...Lex was quickly coming to the conclusion that he didn't think that he could handle it if Chloe was with that clown.

He had been with countless women, but there were only a very few that he ever really cared about and Chloe had quickly joined their ranks. He had always been of a jealous disposition, and the mere thought of Chloe with his former friend made his skin crawl and his fists clench. They weren't even really dating and he was already ready to throw down with some nameless, faceless and frankly imaginary rival over her. Forgetting the fact that it wasn't in her nature to manipulate men or pit them against each other, he started considering how he would react if she preferred another man to him. He wondered when he was through with him, if he would still have a career as a politician and whether it would be worth it in the end.

He felt a surge of inexplicable anger, quickly chased by embarrassment and confusion at the route his imagination had taken. He remembered when they were younger how Chloe used to look at Clark...and how Clark used to look at Lana. But it had been years since all of that had taken place, what if Clark had finally started looking in the right direction?

When he was with Lana, and the name still hurt to think, they had been passionate, physical and flamboyantly dramatic. Everything they did seemed excessive, like the story line for a soap opera or a badly acted reality TV show. Then he had put up with it, enjoyed it, actually. It felt good to be wanted, to have someone who supposedly cared enough about him to rant and rave, arguing heatedly about stupid and inconsequential things. At the time he had thought that their insatiable neediness had meant that they were made for each other, not that they were simply two lonely and insecure people who had similar flaws and happened to bring out the worst in each other. It wasn't her fault entirely, nor was it his, they were both to blame for the turn their relationship took and their temperments made the likelihood of any union surviving the blast slim to none.

They would have screaming matches followed by a passionate session of lovemaking, and the pattern continued for much too long until even their fights became routine and angry make-up sex actually turned into a rut, something Lex had never thought possible. A man more willing to assess his flaws would realize he was lucky to have escaped the relationship virtually unscathed, and perhaps would have geared himself toward trying to deal with his irrational thoughts and immature behavior, but unfortunately he was too prideful to even take that into consideration.

He found it hard, if not impossible, to imagine that Chloe would be up to the same games. She listened when he spoke, and was generally genuinely interested in what he had to say, even if she disagreed with it. They had flirted for an extended period of time, but other than that there was no real relationship to speak of. Oddly enough, he felt strongly enough about her that he couldn't entertain the idea of seeing another woman despite their lack of definition, and the idea of her seeing another man...

Chloe laughed, a beat too late, but pressed on valiantly nonetheless. "I was thinking about involving you in a gay love affair, would you be alright with that? I'd hate one teensy little article to put an end to us watching bad movies together," she asked, pressing a finger to her chin thoughtfully.

He turned his head and smirked. "Do as you wish. We both know the truth," he said, and he reached for her hand. It was almost an impulsive thing, her arm was supported by the armrest and it had been so dangerously close to his. He didn't question the action, decisiveness was one of his strong characteristics, he just put his hand on top of hers.

She shifted in her seat, but left her hand where it was. "Is this commercial really scaring you? Granted, the idea of Rob Schneider acting again terrifies me too," she said with equal parts teasing and anxiety. He really wished that he knew what she was thinking, why she was nervous, but her mind was a complete mystery to you.

He squeezed her hand. "No."

She adjusted herself and for a moment he thought that she was going to pull away, but instead she rotated her arm so that her hand could be palm up before she laced her fingers with his. Over time she moved slightly closer to him, so that their arms were touching and the tension had alleviated for the time being. The physical contact sent a jolt into Lex's stomach and he tried to remember the last time a girl made him this nervous. They sat like that for the duration of the film, hands loosely joined with her head leaning slightly on his shoulder by the end. Chloe was right, the movie was awful, the pace was awkward and the dialogue stilted. But it was one of the best dates he had ever had.

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When Chloe woke up, she felt like all heroes and heroines do after being doused with a bit of chloroform; fuzzy disoriented and extremely confused. It took her a moment to realize where she was...or at least, where she thought she was. It felt like a coffin, and for a mad moment she thought that she had been buried alive. Panic consumed her as she pushed hard against the surface above her with all the force she was capable of, though it was not much seeing as her arms were still restrained by handcuffs. She moved to kick, and only then did she realize that her knees were bent and that she was surrounded by some sort of carpeting.

Her period of unconsciousness made her slow, and it took her a second to realize that she was in the trunk of a car. _Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic..._she repeated over and over again in a lame attempt to squash the burgeoning hysteria. She never really considered herself to be chlaustrophobic, but she had been jammed into enough tight spaces to know that it was a very bad thing. She searched in vain for the released lever, but it had been disabled. She even scoured the trunk for a tire iron, but only a fool would equip their prisoner with such a useful tool. She squirmed anxiously, searching with her fingers for a weak point and not succeeding. She tried to kick the area where she figured the lights would be, but there wasn't enough space for her to get sufficient momentum.

She thrashed around, refusing to give into the helplessness that was slowly but surely overtaking her. Lex and Clark weren't coming. It was times like these that she momentarily missed Lex's ridiculous overprotectiveness, and she hoped that at some point he had ho-jacked her. It was an odd wish, but she would rather be branded than dead.

Chloe thought of Clark...how would he do if she was gone? It was almost a silly thought, but she knew that it had merit. Gone were the days when he had a solid support system, Lana at his side, Chloe as the ready and willing sidekick and Pete, who was willing to keep his secret a secret. The Lana/Clark saga had imploded as anyone with any degree of foresight could have predicted, Pete had grown up and moved on, rarely sparing a though for those he left behind in Smallville. Jonathan Kent was dead and Martha was making her mark as a politician and couldn't be there for her son like she used to be.

As the years past and relationships and nemeses came and went with the tide, the only real constant in his life had been Chloe. How would he handle it if his only source of stability was gone? The moral part of her hoped, halfheartedly, mind you, that he wouldn't try to get revenge. But the dominant side of her fiercely wanted Raul and all his little minions to go down in a spectacular and legendary explosion. She wanted it to make Watergate look like a slight ethical dilemma, she wanted these men to burn.

Since she was about to die in an unknown way, she didn't have much time to weigh the pros versus the cons. Even looking back at all of her decisions, good and bad, she still found herself wanting Lex to evade justice, get off scott-free and waltz off into the sunset with his shiny head held high. God she loved him, there was no point lying about it now. There was a fire there that had never and would never wane, a connection forged in innocence that had withstood nearly a decade of intense differences of opinions. She wished that life were simpler, that she was simpler and they could have had a happy life together.

If it had all worked out that way she certainly wouldn't be in the trunk of her captor's car, driving off to certain death. But even now, faced with the consequence of her morals, her love and her mercy, for she hadn't exposed Lex when she had the chance, she still couldn't find something that she truly regretted. The simple truth of the matter was that she couldn't have stayed with him after he had tried to kidnap, experiment and eventually kill the only other man she loved. Chloe tried, she played out scenarios in her head, because frankly she didn't have anything better to do for the time being, but she couldn't alter his course of action any more than she could revise the past.

She had loved, she had lost, and she had endured. And she was ready for whatever life threw her way, even if that was death.

The trunk flew open and light poured in, and she winced. But she could see the barrel of a gun bearing down on her, pointed directly between her eyes.

**SUPER SIZED! Tell me what you think, review, review, review!!**


	44. Pride Before the Fall

**A mother's day present: this chapter early! Thanks so much for all the support, you guys. After I'm done I think I'm going to edit the earlier chapters. I don't expect you guys to reread them or anything, but I've been looking over them and there are continuity errors galore :) Enjoy...**

Chloe would be proud. Her two men sat in a confined space with an extremely high pressure situation cooking, each valiantly resisting the urge to kill the other. Well, perhaps this was an overstatement concerning Clark, while he would love to be the cause of great injury to the current President of these United States, he couldn't bring himself to kill anyone...with the possible exception of this Raul fellow. However, if there was a way to kill Clark, Lex would be (theoretically, of course) completely on board.

They were both itching for some action, and seeing as both were forced into a reluctant truce for the time being, they couldn't effectively take their frustrations out on each other...not as though Lex hadn't tried.

"GPS system?" Clark said dully. It was hard to maintain a level of enthusiasm when Lex was being unusually negative and taciturn. Clark knew that everyone had their own individual methods for dealing with fear and anxiety, but his deep rooted dislike and distrust of Lex made it difficult to sympathize.

Lex sneered. "Brilliant idea, too bad we don't know their mode of transport or have it equipped with the necessary equipment."

Clark sighed. They had been spending the last five minutes spit balling ideas, or more accurately Clark suggesting things for Lex to immediately shoot down.

"We've already ruled out phone traces," Clark said, forced to recap previous sneer-inducing ideas. There was only so many ways to find out Chloe's location, and it seemed as though they had run through them all.

"Yes, there is no possible way that Raul would be careless enough to keep his cell phone on him at a time like this. He knows that I'm after him, he must know. More likely than not he's using a disposable," said Lex with a trace of misery. He felt oddly hollow, as though all of his major organs had been suddenly replaced with deflated balloons, brain included. Lex was accustomed to working during extreme emotional and psychological distress, but this was different and he couldn't stand it.

Clark tried to focus, but found the exercise to be completely futile. He could disband a group of thieves in an instant, could fly across the world in a day to solve a missile crisis. He could even melt bullets with his eyes, a trick that Chloe never ceased to be amused by. However stopping grenades or missiles when aimed directly at him proved to be infinitely more challenging, as he learned when he became public enemy by Lex's manipulation. Even now, them memory evoked nothing more than a deep primal ache in the pit of his stomach. He could face being feared and despised by the public and having various types of weaponry launched at him if he could only have Chloe with him again. All of that seemed like nothing, a meaningless and slight annoyance like having a pesky fly buzzing near your ear.

Clark Kent, alias Superman, could survive a nuclear holocaust without a mark to show for it. He had saved countless lives, made the headlines on a regular basis despite taking Chloe's advice and trying (and ultimately failing) to keep a low profile. He could do just about anything, apart from being in the same room as a certain type of meteor rock. He knew what he could survive, and he knew what would completely and utterly destroy him. Losing Chloe was on the top of that short list.

He had always wondered how Lex had handled losing Chloe, albeit temporarily. He was hardly the type of man to take defeat lightly, or shrug it off and wax philosophical with all of that 'it's better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all' nonsense. Lex Luthor was easily one of the most powerful men in the world, and Clark knew him better than most, though admittedly nowhere near as well as Chloe did. But then again, who knew Lex better than she did? Who understood his motivations more than the one person who alone served as an incentive?

In the days after the Chloe and Lex implosion Clark was clueless as to what was going on, he had wanted to keep his distance...well, perhaps not _wanted _more like _needed _to keep away when he realized just how serious his best friend was getting with his, forgive his dramatics, worst enemy. At the hospital he had seen more than he had wanted, Lex was undeniably different when it came to Chloe. It was like the cliche come to life; the love of a good woman actually reformed the former Lothario. But as in most cases, this only seemed to work since he was eager to go after her, be with her and forsake all others. Clark had hoped a bit of healthy distance would help to slightly divorce himself emotionally from Chloe. He wasn't sure how he would react when and if they got married, but something inside of him warned him to stay away from the time being. There was no denying that it wouldn't be pretty.

And then, as though a miracle struck, their relationship dissolved and Clark was left uncertain when and why this had occurred. At first, he didn't care. He felt a weight lift off of him and he felt truly happy for the first time in a very long time. But he had entered the situation after the formative post-relationship days had passed. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Lex, lurking around Chloe's doorstep or haunting her at the Planet and he didn't understand why. It was not like him to simply shrug and take the cards as they fell and Clark had never really understood why this time, the only time he was fighting for something that he couldn't risk losing, he would concede.

He contemplated this for a moment, and thought he could vaguely recall Lex stopping by the office before Clark began snooping on his best friend. At the time it hadn't meant much, he had been desperately trying to ignore his existence as opposed to despising him for it, but the timeline seemed to fit. Though he wanted nothing more than to continue his preliminary research on a string of robberies he himself had thwarted on one occasion, he still couldn't wholly disconnect himself from Chloe's wavelength.

Perhaps he was inventing it, maybe the instance had been before the breakup or he was exaggerating the circumstance, but in his mind's eye he could see disbelief, sadness and anger flicker across her face in quick succession as he approached. His body language was the same as always, supremely confident and unerringly haughty, so that was just about right. Clark did his best not to pay attention, but he sensed his best friend bristle before rising from her desk, in the bullpen, at that time, before leading him into the hallway. She was exuding an aura of professionalism, as though she was going to interview him, and again Clark found nothing odd in this. They had done their best to keep their relationship out of the papers and so the smartest thing for her to do was pretend as though there was nothing going on between them. Clark had risen and gone to discuss his article with Lois, desperate for a distraction, and when he had gone back to his desk Chloe had returned, and for a moment he thought that he saw her dabbing her eyes.

"How did you try to get her back?" Clark asked, without thinking of the consequences.

Lex's eyes darted to his face with such speed and venom that Clark immediately regretted the impulsive measure. "Why do you want to know?" he asked, trying to sound detachedly curious but only succeeding revealing the depth of his anger. He wasn't accustomed to being accosted like that, especially by the corn fed farm boy who was usually as predictable as the sunrise.

Clark muttered something about 'curiosity,' and 'just wondering,' but Lex shot down his fluffy excuses with a look. "You're not the type of guy who gives up easily, but apart from a ridiculous amount of flower traffic into her apartment. Now that you're back you've barely given her any space whatsoever. Why now? Why after years of distance did you finally decide to try and get her back?" This was more candid than he would have liked, but there was no time for subtlety and Clark could care less if he offended him. The paranoid part of his brain, and this was the part that made him such a good reporter, couldn't help but wonder if somehow Lex sensed that for the first time there was some threat of 'losing her' forever. Considering the 'forever' they were facing at the moment, having her fall for someone else hardly seemed quite to important.

It was silly and illogical, but Clark couldn't help but ponder exactly why Lex had deigned to return after years of separation. He had been grappling with his feelings for her on and off for quite some time, they had settled in an odd quasi-platonic friendship that both of them were satisfied with but innately they knew that there could always be more. Neither of them really had a vested interest in finding someone to love and spend their lives with as long as they had each other. After Lana, Clark simply lost his nerve and in the back of his head wondered why he would need someone when he had Chloe.

She was fiercely loyal, incredibly intelligent and not to mention undeniably helpful in sticky situations. She had been offered the opportunity to leave, forsake or forget him more times than either cared to count and each and every time she decided to stay where she was. The pair of them had been relying on the other so long for companionship that when she started seeing Lex it was like a sharp blow to the head. He couldn't tell if his intense negative reaction to the news stemmed from a mutual hatred of Lex, the fact that his best friend could no longer devote most of her time to him or if it was latent jealousy that he had never really had to deal with before.

None of the men that Chloe had dated had ever posed a real threat to their relationship until Lex came along. It was a confusing swirl of emotions that he had never been able to completely sort out. As far as he could tell, it was a warped mix of the three...though perhaps the jealousy had been the most dominant of all, and that was the one emotion he had been most adamantly trying to deny.

Lex was fully prepared to tell him to shut his trap but something stopped him. He had never talked about her with anyone before, he was hardly in a position to cultivate confidantes. He thought that it might be a good change to talk about her for once...if only to use the opportunity to hurt Clark some more. "She threatened to get a restraining order if I didn't leave her alone and normally that wouldn't do much to dissuade me but let's just say...I had already done enough damage." She refused to answer the door, screened her calls and when he had the opportunity to speak to her there wasn't much talking...it mostly consisted of stony silence and eventual shouting.

She had told him to leave her alone, how would it look if he had a stalking charge marring his record? She played on his political aspirations, just like he should have known that she would. But somehow she always had a way of surprising him, and he consistently underestimated her ability to hit him where it hurt.

And then she had changed apartments so quickly that it sent him reeling. He later found out that she had gone AWOL only to work freelance for the paper, emailing in her articles, going to different parts of the country for news stories. She was moving at warp speed, and even he couldn't keep up with her. And his political career kept him very busy, just as his advisors had wanted. He hardly had time to brood when he was being groomed to become the youngest president in history. He had known that she was all right, and for the time being that had to be enough...but at the same time there was a throbbing hole inside of him that time, distance and distraction couldn't heal. He had always hated that she was capable of so swiftly and thoroughly moving on when even years later he devoted an unhealthy amount of time thinking about her.

But he had never intended to let her get away, to slip through his fingers. Part of him hoped that giving her time to cool off would somehow change things, though innately he knew that this wasn't likely. She was stubborn and resolute, but seeing her for the first time in years had made him feel as though he was really alive again, despite her clear cut dislike of him. Before he saw her again he had been acting as a machine, working on autopilot throughout the course of his campaign, spending most of his time writing and rehearsing speeches, even if his advisors deigned them inadequate. It kept him busy, and the days, weeks and months, even years, seemed to all meld together into an indistinguishable blur of events.

He couldn't explain why he had come back, chosen that time to resurface. He had read every single one of her articles, even going back and starting at the beginning of her career in order to see her progression. At first he was moderately impressed, for he had set the bar for her behavior and accomplishments far above that of anyone else so while he would consider her work to be excellent if it had come from another reporter, seeing as he knew what she was capable of it diminished slightly in his eyes.

She progressed at an irritatingly average rate, but she had always been of a daring sort after a while she reached the glass ceiling of the very short tower and there was nowhere else to go. He had read her veiled criticisms of his policies, and instead of being frustrated by her inability to see the progress he was trying to make he found himself amused by her unstinting disapproval and her articulate way of condemning him and his cabinet. If she was still angry and vindictive, it meant that he had left just as much of a mark on her as she did on him.

Chloe was working at a job she had striven for since before puberty and she had been so invested in it that she didn't recognize the fact that she had outgrown it. She attributed her growing dissatisfaction and disillusionment with a seven year itch, or simply a rut but he saw it for what it was. Chloe was talented and deserved to be more than a reporter at some second rate publication, keeping in mind that he owned it. She could do nearly anything she put her mind to, and she was working as a reporter at a Kansas newspaper? He simply couldn't stand for this, and he had given her the chance. Well, truth be told he forced her into a job he neither asked for nor wanted, and even though she wouldn't admit it the career change had reinvigorated her. He had seen the renewed interest, even though she desperately tried to keep it from him. He knew that Clark had seen it too and he felt the familiar sting of jealousy as he toyed with the reality that she didn't conceal these things from her Superman.

Ah, his imagined rival had finally got the nerve to make a move after the better part of a decade had past. How would Clark react if he asked him how he coped with the fact that Chloe had and would always love him? He thought about asking, just to see the inevitable pain flicker across his face but something stopped him. For the time being, they needed to remain civil. They may not be getting much done, but they needed to focus on the objective.

Raul couldn't possibly still have his registered cell phone on him, Lex knew that this was an impossibility with a man as precise and paranoid as he was...and it took one to know one, that was for certain. He was detached, even when he conversed with Lex he wouldn't offer full disclosure, and why should he? But that, that was important. He didn't know why, but something struck him as he thought about that.

Clark caught a glimpse of his contorted facial expression. "What's wrong?"

Lex ignored him, it was easier to ignore him than let him break his train of thought. Raul was a classic narcissist, he thought himself above his company, those he represented, even Lex himself. Lex had known for quite some time that Raul viewed everything as a game of sorts, and the political machine to Raul was nothing more than a glorified chessboard, and the President and his cabinet were nothing more than pawns.

He had told him what must happen, that Chloe was going to die and he never would have trusted Lex himself to orchestrate it. He was a lone wolf in an underling's clothing, he pretended to be one of the group but when it came down to it the only person he trusted was himself. Lex had seen him with the secret service agents, he had even thought those professionally trained men to be below his company. He never bothered attempting to communicate with them as equals, he relied on the chain of command. Tell someone on top, closer to his level though never equal, and let the information trickle down.

Lex didn't know exactly why this was important, but it was as though he was channeling Chloe's spirit. Raul lived by the idea that he was the only one who could do things right, and therein lied his hubris. _The driver..._

Raul preferred to operate by himself and through those he could manipulate, but his mistake had been in not realizing that Lex knew him...or in the very least understood him. He didn't trust anyone else, and Lex was certain that Raul wouldn't offer full disclosure to someone he saw as a peon. Chloe would just be another criminal, Raul would never deign to fill his driver in on the details.

"Your contacts at the Planet, can they trace a cell instantly?" Lex asked, alight with the heat from his idea.

Clark frowned and nodded. "Yeah, I guess but..."

Lex cut him off, they had no time. "Do you remember the driver's name? Now, now, we NEED to know. What was his name? The driver, the man driving the car with Chloe and Raul, the goddamned DRIVER what was his name?" Lex asked, nearly shouting.

Clark didn't pause to think, he had memorized every detail of that car, listened intently. "Carl Lewis. His name is Carl Lewis. I'll call Joy, she works at..." he stopped short, knowing that this wasn't important information to relay. He felt slightly reinvigorated, dialing so quickly that his fingers were merely a blur.

"Joy, it's Clark. This is incredibly important, trust me, but I don't have time to answer questions of go through protocol. I need you to find a cell phone owned by a C-A-R-L space L-E-W-I-S and trace it's location. I'm sorry I can't give you more information, but time is of the essence."

Lex didn't know whether to pull over on the side of the road or keep driving. There was about a 50/50 chance that he was headed in the right direction but if he was going the wrong way he didn't want to put anymore distance between him and Chloe. He could feel it, just as Clark could. She was in immediate danger, Lex didn't know Raul's plan and he didn't want to give him time to execute it.

"It should just be a minute. Are you sure that the driver will have his cell on him? It's so...how come I didn't think of it before?"

Because he didn't know Raul. And of course he couldn't be certain, the driver could be surprisingly quick on the uptake or simply prefer not to travel with his cell phone, Raul could have taken a liking to him and told him the exact protocol, he could have left his phone in the car...a million different scenarios zipped through his head as they waited for Joy to get back to them. "I'm sure," he said in a voice that brooked no refusal, despite the fact that he was no such thing.

"Raul doesn't play well with others, and most people wouldn't consider the possibility of getting traced, or the idea that someone would know enough to trace some secondary peon's cell phone. He wouldn't condescend to explain procedure or the danger of the situation to someone he saw as a monkey who could drive, especially since he doesn't know that I have an alien on my side. He won't know that I am personally invested in the situation, he won't understand because Raul wouldn't bother to converse with him." Lex said, more for his own benefit than Clark's.

He wanted to convince himself, _needed _to know that there was still a chance that they could find her. They had to find her, they had to save her...he was in such a state of panic that he hadn't even realized that he was referring to he and Clark as a team.

A definitely feminine voice chirped from Clark's disposable and it flew up to his ear at the speed of light. "Hello? Okay...thanks, I've got it. Thank you so much," he said, face lighting up as Lex had only seen when he looked at Chloe. "They're uptown, near a phone tower. Government owned land on Breckinridge Drive..."

Lex looked up sharply. "Breckinridge?" Clark nodded. "That's a top-secret facility where we fly out government planes."

Clark's face dropped drastically. "Planes? Where are they going to take her?"

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It took a split second for her to realize that it was the driver pointing the gun, and instead of being consumed with the panic she had expected, instead she was overtook by an eery calm.

"Put the gun down, you're embarrassing yourself." There was a strength in her voice, a strength that she couldn't identify the origins of.

The man looked at her, eyebrow lifted quizzically as though he had never seen anything quite like her before. But it wasn't he who spoke. "How so?" Raul was out of sight, but she could recognize his ice cold voice anywhere.

"We both know that however you plan on dispatching of me, it won't involve a gun."

Raul stepped into her peripherals, though from extended exposure to darkness and chloroform he was a bit wavy around the edges. "I really enjoy knowing that you're going to die very shortly. I'd like to watch, but I'm afraid that's not advisable."

She shifted, feeling slightly odd that they were conducting this conversation with a gun in her face while she was tied up in the trunk of what seemed to be a Saab. _Well, at least it's on the roomy side_. She had had enough close calls to know the difference. She knew that if all went according to plan she would be dead in a very short while, but she was certain that her corpse wouldn't be riddled with bullet holes.

"You can hardly claim it's an accident if I die of lead poisoning."

Raul shrugged, a carefully controlled gesture. Chloe was starting to think that everything he did was previously planned. "That's true," he said, taking the gun from the driver in one fluid movement, reaching in the trunk and taking a hold of the front of her shirt, hoisting her up with a surprising amount of strength,

Before she could blink he lifted the gun and flipped it single-handedly, hitting her square on the jaw with the butt of the gun. She crumpled like a rag doll, spitting out a mouthful of blood before stumbling into near instant unconsciousness. "But that should be congruent with your injuries," he said, turning to face his lackey, "change her and load her into the plane, Mr. Lewis."

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**FLASHBACK**

You couldn't really call it rain, the light spray that the sky was spitting at them, it was as unappealing as a child blowing raspberries in one's face, and it was enough to deter most people from an evening stroll. However, Lex Luthor and Chloe Sullivan were not most people.

"I just don't get it, what is your problem with good food? Does it offend you?" Lex asked as they stepped out of their latest cheap eating establishment, glancing skywards and frowning. He had forgotten to bring and umbrella, but Chloe didn't seem to pay the misting any attention.

"I just don't see why you think that a quality dinner needs to cost fifty bucks a person. I am more than satisfied with a good burger and grease laden fries. You're problem is that you insist on ordering salmon at a diner! What did you expect, that it was going to favorably compare to Francois's infamous dish?" she asked, completely amused. "The trick is knowing what to order."

Lex shook his head resolutely. "No, that's not necessarily true. Seeing as I have never felt the necessity to dine at a sub par restaurant I never developed the skill to decipher the edible from the unsavory."

She smirked, nudging him with her arm. He took the opportunity to slip his hand into hers, he seemed to be taking every possible chance to make physical contact. "Well, I can help you there. I am an expert. Clark and I..." she glanced up at his expression quickly, as she always did on the rare occasion when his name was mentioned. His lips tightened near indecipherably and she deemed it acceptable to continue. "Well, we've been to enough dives to be able to read between the lines. Any fish, apart from in stick or sandwich form, cannot be bought at a place like that! I warned you," she said, taking her free hand and sticking up her index finger, waving it chidingly.

"I should have listened," he admitted, willing to admit defeat.

The corners of her lips twitched. "Ah, such a quick concession. I'll have to pick our next disagreement more carefully. I like when you go all verbose on me. It's really entertaining."

He looked at his feet as they navigated their way downtown. He wanted to extend their time together, but it was hardly the right climate for ice cream and a long walk through a hazy and endless journey of unpleasant spritz in the bleak city didn't seem logical. For once he was far from wracked with paranoia about the slow course their relationship was taking, he was actually excited. Now that he could touch her, knowing that she wouldn't dissolve from the contact he was eager to see how it would all unfold.

"I'm glad to be a source of entertainment to you, is that why we've been avoiding the movies lately?" It had been less than two weeks since their venture to mediocrity, but seeing as they were going out upwards of three times a week it did seem like a rather long time. They still had yet to kiss, and while he wasn't sure why he was so hesitant about it he was eagerly awaiting the moment it would happen. Each rendezvous seemed to end the same, they would stop in front of Chloe's building, usually walking but occasionally riding in the limousine, they would say good night and depending on the mood of both they would either smile coyly or share a brief hug.

Little did he know that she was confused as well. The morning before their movie date she and Clark had been researching separate articles together and his hand had left a definite impression on the desk when he came across a flattering story on Lex. She had caught a glance of his expression, and it was wrought with anger and frustration. How could he ever accept the fact that she was really, honestly and truly interested in pursuing a relationship with the man he considered an enemy? As of yet, he was blissfully unaware of their relationship. He was too busy forming his own ulterior identity for the time being, and she had been undeniably using his distraction to her advantage.

Still, his friendship meant more to her than almost anything, and for a brief while she considered allowing her meetings with Lex to dwindle and the attraction to fizzle, but any resolve she had hoped on building came crumbling down whenever she saw him.

She had always loved Clark, and god knows where they would be if he returned the feelings a decade sooner. If she had been with him there was no chance that she would have ever entertained the possibility of seeing Lex in a marginally romantic capacity. Had Clark realized how he felt about her when she was hopelessly in love with him, things would be so different...so much simpler. But life didn't work out that way, and before she knew it she was half in love with Lex.

"No, no, there's been nothing all that good out...not that I'm saying that crap fest I dragged you to was good," she said when his eyebrows shot up. "And it's hard to talk at a movie. It's easier when we're eating at, what did you call it? 'Sub par' restaurants, right?"

The left corner of his mouth twitched. "Right. You should let me take you somewhere where the table isn't readily equipped with a disposable tablecloth and crayons."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I told you, we could've had a good time with those crayons if you weren't so...straight laced."

"Hmm, actually my laces have been rather crooked as of late," he said breezily.

A bicyclist sounded his irritating horn as he drove dangerously close by them. Lex instinctively pulled Chloe out of the way, her warm body colliding with his. And he wanted to kiss her at that exact moment, as she tripped over her feet and stumbled into him, flattening her hand onto his hard chest and cheek accidentally pressing into his shoulder. "Thanks," she said rather breathlessly, righting herself and pulling away gently, but keeping their hands connected. "And, dare I ask, what is the reason for these unusually crooked laces?"

"Who says it's unusual?" he asked, clearly trying to evade the question.

She spared him a hard and knowing look. "I'm pretty observant," _that's an understatement, _"I can tell that you don't normally loosen your tie. Even when you're wearing jeans and a tee shirt you still exude professionalism. I think a lot of people think you're an undercover cop," she said with a smirk.

"What about you? Do you think I scream 'cop'?" he asked lightly.

"No, I think you are pretty clearly the mascot for a popular brand of cleaning products; if only you'd wear more wife beaters to show off those guns of yours. And nice try Mr. Evasive, but you don't get off that easy."

He smiled, he hadn't really expected that his attempt at misdirection would mislead her. "It was worth a try."

She chuckled silently. "If you say so."

He wondered if he could talk his way out of this, but the look on her face convinced him otherwise. "It's...sort of difficult to maintain the status quo when you're around," he said, feeling more than slightly embarrassed. He was infinitely fortunate that he hadn't started blushing. "You have a way of keeping me on my toes."

She looked down at their feet, skipping over a puddle. She wasn't quite as fortunate as Lex, she felt color instantly pool to her cheeks. He was looking resolutely forward, resisting the temptation to see her reaction.

"We should've brought an umbrella," he said after a painfully long moment of silence.

It was hardly the romantic equivalent of the Saint Crispin's day speech, but something stirred inside of her. Clark had made his choice repeatedly, he had chosen Lana over her before, and after years of opportunity he had never seen her in that light. He simply wasn't an option. She had to take him out of the equation.

His hand felt light in hers and she turned, blocking his way and taking his free hand in hers. She pressed her chest onto his, looking up at him through the hazy mist that surrounded them. She knew in this exact moment that he was what she wanted.

Chloe went up on her tiptoes and leaned in. But she didn't have to go all the way, he was more than willing to meet her half way. Their lips met and they melted together, her arms snaked around his neck as his wrapped around her waist. Their skin was moist and warm, the dew continued to drift onto them, but instead of separating them it simply made the pair cleave more to each other.

He kissed her furiously, neither wasting their time with something as senseless as breathing when they could be embracing. They barely knew where they were, but as she tilted into him Lex backed into a lamppost. Neither stopped until their breathing was heavy and they were lightheaded from loss of oxygen, and even then they were reluctant to part.

Lex looked down at her as she glanced upward, and their eyes locked. Though it would be months until either would say it aloud, at that moment they were in complete agreement. For the first time both Chloe and Lex were absolutely sure that they loved each other. It was in that moment that he knew that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, a revelation that in the years passing had never weakened nor wavered.

He kissed her again.

**Tell me what you think!**


	45. Ambiguity

**I'm not sure how you guys feel about this, but it seems like I keep on extending things, subconsciously trying to keep this story going on! I'm glad I've got to show all of you the scope of Chloe and Lex's emotions, but I noticed that I've kind of neglected Clark. I really appreciate the reviews, they keep me going. Hope you enjoy, I'll try to keep my naughty subconscious in check :)**

_Number thirty-six. _It was a shame that Chloe didn't have something to commemorate the occasion, a cake would be nice, or even a heartfelt card, but unfortunately she didn't have the means to arrange something of that magnitude. She had been bitch slapped, tasered, injected, gassed and punched to the point of unconsciousness a grand total of thirty-six times. And she was sick of it, had been for more than a decade. The past few years had been relatively quiet with fewer opportunities to get knocked out, and she hadn't missed this part of the exciting life as Superman's sidekick. It was a miracle she wasn't braindead by now, she had been given enough concussions to last three or four lifetimes.

And to put a cherry on top of the delicious sundae that was her life, this was the second time in a day that she had been knocked unconscious, and it was really starting to piss her off. Her jaw was stiff and throbbing, she instinctively moved her hand to her face but found that she was still bound by those infernal handcuffs. Where was a paperclip when she needed one? She smiled, albeit unwillingly and not without the consequence of tremendous pain, when she thought of picking the lock. She and Clark had learnt together, or a more accurate term was that she cajoled him into trying to do things the human way, seeing as every so often a circumstance occurred where he was left without his powers or a clue, and she wasn't satisfied being some damsel in distress awaiting rescue and pining. But here she was, without a proper instrument and possibly in the most dangerous situation she had ever been placed in.

It took her a long time to muster up the strength and will power to force open her eyes. As far as she could tell she was in a stationary plane, in the midst of a scattered group of female passengers none of whom seemed particularly energetic. Given the recent injury, it took her a moment to grasp the fact that she was in the company of fellow prisoners, none of whom appeared particularly eager to make friends and she was more than willing to go with that.

Amongst the prisoners were only two men, armed to the teeth, keeping a vigilant eye on their wards. From what she could see it looked as though most, if not all, of the women seemed to be sedated to various degrees. One twitched slightly before falling back into a stupor and another woman appeared to be talking in a low voice, glancing conspiratorially over her shoulder while she conducted an intense conversation with herself, but she couldn't concentrate on any one thing for an extended period of time without dark spots clouding her field of vision.

Groggy was an understatement, and as fuzzy as her vision had been post chloroform is seemed to have sharply declined after the pistol whipping. She felt a hot burst of anger as she recalled the sound of her own jaw cracking, but fortunately not breaking. Her tongue searched her mouth and found, much to her dissatisfaction, that she had no less than three chipped teeth. _How am I supposed to pay to get these things fixed? _She could hardly get health insurance when she was on the lam...she forced herself to dwell on that, not consider the increasing possibility (that had quickly turned to over into the scary realm of probability) that she wouldn't get out of this mess alive.

If cats had nine lives, exactly how many did she possess? She had looked death in the eye more times than she could remember, especially when she was a stupid and reckless teenager without a full drasp on the gravity of the situations she unwittingly placed herself in. She had been freak bait throughout puberty, though she couldn't hold a candle to Lana in that category. But Clark had always been there, just in the nick of time. She had been lucky, and he had been timely. But it really was only a matter of time until something held him up or he finally met a foe who had the potential to beat him. When considering this, Chloe had always imagined that it would be a giant, spiky creature with an otherworldly heritage and an amazing right hook. She had never really thought that in the end, she would die simply because Clark had been outranked and outsmarted.

She owed her life to him, but there was a small and quiet part of her that knew if it wasn't for him, her life probably never would have needed saving. The same went for Lex, if she hadn't been involved, the likelihood was high that she wouldn't be handcuffed and bleeding. But those had been her decisions, and Chloe was not one to allocate blame. It was no one's fault but her own, not that she wished that she had done differently. She was given the opportunity to help make a difference in the world and to influence one of the most powerful men on the planet. Even when she died, be it within the hour or in another fifty years, she still left her mark on the world, even if no one else could see it apart from Chloe and Lex.

If it came down to it and the loss of life was unavoidable, Chloe had always hoped that she would die to preserve the greater good, to help or save Clark or somehow aid mankind. She could barely believe that here she was, facing the probability of her demise for no good reason. She could contend with her own death if it had served some purpose, but all this was working toward was covering up the immoral and illegal activities of under the radar government employees. All of this was purposeless, there was no ultimate and basic reasoning behind it all. She was going to die just so some dirty little secret didn't get let out of the bag. And the worst part of it all was that she had been more than willing to forfeit that knowledge just for a chance to escape unscathed, it hadn't even been worth all the trouble. Even if by some miracle it was all revealed postmordem she hadn't even considered it worth dying for. She was dying for no good reason.

It took Chloe a moment to realize that she wasn't wearing her previous outfit, and she blushed as she realized that this meant someone had undressed her. It was a prisoner's outfit, that unflattering don't-shoot-me-orange that made her light up like the fourth of July. She wore rubber soled shoes, laceless, of course, in case she wanted to McGyver a noose out of them.

Each arm was cuffed to an armrest, a special little advantage she noted that her fellow passengers didn't share. She contemplated struggling to the point of fracturing her wrists, but it didn't seem particularly productive and predicted it would be immensely painful. But what did it matter at this juncture? From what she could tell, and seeing as it was dark and she was woozy she easily could have been mistaken, the plane was still on the ground, but the fasten seat belt sign was visible from where she sat and she knew it was only a matter of time until they took off.

Though innately she always knew and frequently took for granted the fact that she had complete confidence in Clark and his tenacity, at this juncture it was hard to slap on the rose colored glasses, cross her phalanges and go against every logical fiber in her being that screamed that this was the end. But she knew him too well and for too long, it was hard to accept the inevitable when Clark seemed to break every rule previously taken as a given. He wanted what was best for her, even if it was at his expense...but she couldn't say the same for the other man.

She had long since accepted the indisputable; that Lex had and always would love her, and despite all he put her through as she faced the possibility of her demise he was very firmly planted in her mind and she made no effort to remove him. But he was selfish, he had staked everything on her and he wanted, no, _needed _reciprocation to sate his ego and when it came down to it he ignored her protestations, blackmailed her into working for him so he could keep a closer eye on her, and compromised her plans for escape. It struck her that it was silly to compare two men that she could very well never see again, and she waited a moment for the inevitable panic to flood her...but it never did.

The pilot didn't bother to make the customary announcement as they took flight, but she could tell from the drop in her stomach and the contorted shadows outside the nearby window that they were taking off. She clamped her eyes shut and bit her lip, willing the plane to stall, forcing them to handle the technical difficulties before they resumed their journey. But they took off without a hitch.

_Clark, where are you_? She had always hated the idea of relying on another, namely a man, to rescue her but she certainly couldn't do it herself. Something inside of her, primal, beyond reason or rationality, was telling her that this was the night she was going to die.

* * *

Lex was glad he had time to himself, racing down the interstate at a reckless speed. He didn't know when the plane would take off, carrying the only woman that mattered toward certain death, and he didn't have the time nor the patience to figure it all out. He had made the obligatory calls, breaking not only speeding laws but also driving while on his cell phone, barking orders like mad though he knew that Raul wouldn't have allowed such convenient loopholes.

Despite the fact that he was the President of the most powerful country on the face of the earth, it turned out that the ever surprising Raul was more resourceful than he was. He had trumped Lex yet again, and Lex did not relish defeat.

He had thought that Clark was going to hit him when Lex demanded that he take a detour to the morgue and snatch a stiff that could pass for Chloe height wise. Lex knew that Superman wanted to swoop in and rescue her singlehandedly, save her from the clutches of danger without Lex there to ruin the moment. And Lex couldn't explain the impulse, but he wanted to do the exact same thing.

He always knew and accepted the fact that he was a selfish man, but it was difficult to come to terms with knowing that while he would do anything to save Chloe, he had the urge to compromise it momentarily in order to be the one to liberate her from the clutches of death. He had appealed to Clark with the desperate hope that he would be instrumental in rescuing her, and thus far he had been mostly a liability. His unnatural powers had given him an edge, and that was the only reason he had known the driver's name. And just because he was an alien, a freak, he would get all the glory?

If he could find another, any way, to do this without tall dark and martyr Lex certainly would have done so, but his options were irritatingly limited. All he could hope for was that the plane had yet to take off and Clark could do his obnoxious speed, save the day, replace her with a dead body and just wait for the plane to crash.

Because even if Chloe didn't know it yet, Lex knew that this was what Raul would do. It was quick, easy and statistically probable. It was only a matter of time.

* * *

Despite the desperation of the circumstance, Clark couldn't help but feel like a ghoul for lurking around in the morgue for a presentable body. He never slowed, constantly moving at super-speed to remain off film, employing his x-ray vision to scan the corpses tucked away for someone who's build would pass for Chloe if not looked at too extensively. From his limited knowledge of high latitude plane crashes, there wouldn't be enough of her teeth left to make an identification on that basis alone. And why would anyone suspect that she had been replaced in the eleventh hour? It just wasn't feasible, but paranoid thoughts ran rampant nonetheless.

He kept his ears perked for the approach of any workers, and even more so listening keenly for the sound of any crashing plane. He doubted that even he could hear it if it were to happen so far away, but he kept his sanity by pretending as though it was possible. It was fortunate that there was finally an objective, a tentative plan, or else Clark wasn't sure what he would do. He had already destroyed a city landmark in a fit of temper, what would be next?

He could hardly wait until it was all over, he and Chloe would be gone and far away from Lex. It was strange that even in the midst of all this Clark was still more intimidated by Lex than this Raul fellow. Maybe because he knew what Lex could do to Chloe, and by association what he could do to him. It had been bad enough seeing the devastation from a safe distance, but now that he had passed the point of no return he couldn't stand the idea of seeing it again.

With his x-ray vision he spotted someone of similar height and build tucked away in the metal morgue shelves, and he was quick to disable the security cameras, hoist the corpse out of its resting place and speed out of the building to stash it in a remote location. Clark felt disgusted with himself, but knew that there was really no other option. He wrenched cabinets open, stole a large bottle of formaldehyde and made a shameful mess, hoping that teenager pranksters would be blamed for the body heist and subsequent rummaging.

He glanced down dispassionately at the body he had stolen, she had darker hair and a heavier build but bone structure-wise she was a good match. She reeked of preservatives and death and Clark could hardly believe that he had been brought down to this level. And it was difficult to contend with the fact that the only person in the entire world that he would be willing to do this for loved someone else.

* * *

Chloe moved restlessly, fidgeting against the tight and unmovable handcuffs as though chafing her wrists would somehow loosen their hold. And even if, by some miracle, she could detach her arms from the rests, what then? They were in the air and clearly moving toward whatever destination was pre-planned. It had yet to occur to her that Raul had no intention of allowing any of the passengers to land.

It was a quiet sort of naivete that Chloe truly believed that she had outgrown, but she couldn't wrap her mind around the possibility that Raul would be willing to kill a plane full of people just to make sure that she truly perished in a believably 'accidental' way. She couldn't imagine that someone would do such a thing, the equivalent of shooting a fly with a bazooka.

So, for the moment, she thought that she was safe. That whatever inevitable death awaited her would occur after they landed. And that was when the hydraulics went.

* * *

All that Lex had attempted was in vain. He couldn't stop the plane, and he couldn't make too much noise about it without alerting Raul and making him even more suspicious than he was already. He hated this, the uncertainty and the helplessness. But the truth was, he always seemed to experience an irritating amount of helplessness whenever Chloe was around. He had always found this irritating, but he would be willing to trade that in a moment for what he was feeling now.

He wanted to save her. He wanted to be the first thing she saw, but that dubious honor was relegated to the martyring alien. They had wasted precious moments arguing about the aftermath, the course of action to take when (and if, but neither wanted to allow her death to be a possibility) she was rescued. Lex had grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and looked at him with such a burning intensity that Clark had shrank away instinctually.

"As soon as she's out of danger, bring her to the field," he had already given him the coordinates, "and if you don't I don't care how invincible you think you are. I will find you and I will find an effective way to kill you. You couldn't have done this without me, you'd be far too busy ruining landmarks and wasting tax payer money to do anything efficient." His words sliced straight through him cruelly, but Lex had an undeniable point. But Clark wasn't about to admit to that.

This was a temporary truce they had going, and both knew that this changed nothing. As soon as Chloe was safe, each would revert to their previous stances on the other with no alterations. Clark wondered if they would somehow be able to reconcile themselves to the idea of simply being indifferent if Chloe had not been such a point of bitter contention, but in the end he knew that he'd rather have her coupled with Lex's hatred than not at all. Really, it wasn't even a close call.

Clark returned the stare with equal intensity, but he couldn't even hope to be half as intimidating as Lex. "We'll be there. I promise," he said, voice echoing his sincerity as well as his hesitancy. But he was a man of his word, and despite all of the faults Lex consistently found in him he couldn't pretend that this assurance didn't assuage his doubts.

"Good," he had said. "Now go steal a corpse and get on with it."

And now he was driving toward said field, having ditched his original car and gotten another in its stead. There was no chance of tracking him, but he had parked it a good mile away and walked the rest of the way toward the destination.

He was going to see her again. He was going to see her again...he needed to cling to that hope and believe it. He couldn't allow himself to doubt, because he really wasn't sure what he would do if he stopped believing it. He had to see her, one more time.

Now, that was a lie. And a big one at that. He had no intention of playing the martyr, of just having on last chaste encounter. Because he had a plan that would keep him in her life, and he knew Chloe. He knew she'd have to agree.

Because she would live through this. She had to live through this. There was no other acceptable alternative.

* * *

Chloe had long since been a fixture on Clark's frequency. Her voice, when nearby, was the vocal equivalent of an alarm whenever it sounded in the distance. In their early twenties he had been gallant, careful not to listen in when he sensed that she was nearby and that was the only reason it had taken him so long to realize that she and Lex were...well, _involved_. But it had been years since he had done that, and right now he had his mind resolutely cleared and primed to listen for her. He was patrolling the skies, where the frequency was at its best.

It was because of his long standing investment in her well being that he acted a moment before he would have on any other occasion. Because he heard her screams before he actually heard the sound of the plane crashing.

* * *

Chaos reigned supreme. The air mask for her seat dangled uselessly in front of her, slapping her in the face repeatedly as the plane careened out of control. Only the guards were with it enough to panic, and they secured their masks and completely ignored the passengers. The woman who was conversing with herself was forced to shout, seeing as she could hardly hear her imaginary friend over the sound of inevitable death.

Chloe felt herself forced forward and she heard rather than felt her right wrist break at the sudden change of weight allocation. She winced at the sound, but there was enough adrenaline pumping through her system to delay the pain. Taking advantage of this temporary reprieve from pain (was this how Clark felt all the time? An awareness of injury without the actual physical warning), she tried to shimmy her broken wrist out of the handcuffs.

There was no logic behind it, simply an animalistic need to free herself, but the cuffs were too tight and her wrist too wide for this to be feasible. There was so much noise and bedlam that she didn't even realize that she was screaming at the top of her lungs until her voice gave out. She went lightheaded and she had no real concept of time, it felt as though they had been plummeting for hours but knew in the back of her head that it couldn't have been longer than 20 seconds.

It was a popular myth that as you face death your life flashes before your eyes, but she didn't experience anything like that. She had many disjointed and fragemented thoughts, but there was only one thing that she was absolutely certain of. She wasn't ready to die.

* * *

Clark had never moved quite so fast in all of his life. It was difficult to maneuver with a corpse slung over his shoulder, but he didn't allow himself to be restrained by what he considered possible. It wasn't even like he was a solid mass anymore, through speed he felt almost weightless, like vapors on the wind.

He was singular minded, all that mattered was getting to her in time. He saw the plane and acted on instinct, it was times like these that the alien part of him seemed most dominant, he forced his thoughts to be quiet so he could concentrate. The airplane was plummeting, smoke and ash rising from it like it was the flaming corpse of a phoenix. He felt a jolt of shock as he realized that Chloe wasn't alone, he could hear the stirring of at least a dozen other people inside the craft.

He supposed it was stupid to not anticipate this, to not figure that of course she wouldn't be traveling alone. It was a small plane, but not small enough to only carry a single passenger. He didn't pause, but his clarity of mind disappeared instantly.

It was at this moment that he realized he had a choice. All of his life he had accepted his fate, that he was meant to save people without recognition or any sense of genuine appreciation for his efforts and that was to be his lot in life. He could stop the plane, he could catch it and land it safely, saving the lives of those inside but putting Chloe right back on the fast track to death row. If she were to miraculously 'escape' a manhunt the magnitude of which he had never seen would be waged, and for the rest of her life she would be living in fear.

Clark knew that as soon as she was out of harm's way Lex was going to dispose of Raul the best way he knew how, but how much suspicion would arise if he was enthusiastically searching for the escaped convict at the time? There would be no guarantees, Lex would already be under intense scrutiny and after all he had done to protect her Clark found that he couldn't reconcile himself with the fact.

He thought of all of this as he moved, wrenching the emergency door off of the plane and tossing it aside as though it was weightless. Even as he pondered moral ambiguity he moved toward her, he had long since been accustomed to the presence of the body over his shoulder. He had made his decision, even though he tried his best to pretend that he hadn't.

The craft shuddered and the passengers who were with it enough stared at him in confusion, as though certain that they were all sharing the same hallucination. Chloe saw him and instantly knew, though through the smoky haze she couldn't see the corpse he carried. She felt the massive knot inside her chest loosen and dissolve, but she didn't have much time to feel the weight of her gratefulness.

He moved at lightning speed, employing his heat vision to break the cuffs at the chain, not risking trying to remove them entirely when the plane was shaking so severely. She blinked, wondering detachedly if this was what it was like to be in a state of shock, and suddenly she felt the whoosh of Clark moving and when she glanced down she was in her bra and underwear and the corpse was wearing her prison garb. Clark scooped her up and placed the stolen body in her seat before flying out of the gaping hole of his own creation. While all of this seemed to take place in slow motion, but less than six seconds had passed while it had all transpired.

They were free from the plane for less than four seconds when it reached its final resting place, colliding into the gratefully barren land below in an eruption of sound. The explosion was shocking, flames shot out at all angles and any voices from below extinguished instantly. A piece of shrapnel flew through the air and narrowly missed the pair of them, and Clark clutched Chloe close to him. Midair he removed his jacket and draped it around her, though she was too shocked to feel any sense of embarrassment at her near nudity. He did a quick x-ray and saw that her right wrist was snapped beyond broken and the left had stress fractures, her face was swollen and Clark felt a swell of rage surge through her.

He felt her shaking against him, face pressed against his shoulder and in seconds his undershirt was soaked through with tears. She clung to him, arms wrapped tight around his neck as she sobbed uncontrollably. She had wanted to make a pithy comment, like someone would do in a movie. _What took you so long?_ Maybe, or even, _I knew you'd come. _But her voice wasn't operating properly and she hadn't known any of that, she had faith in Clark but the plane had been crashing and she had been certain that she was going to die. In the end, she knew it was coming but hoped beyond hope that it wouldn't transpire.

She only hoped that this was real, that all of this was really happening. She looked down at the crash site and knew that the odds were against her, that if it wasn't for Clark she would have been one of the casualties. She pressed herself even closer to him, she didn't want to have even an inch separating him. _It's real...I'm alive. It's real._ She still couldn't feel the pain from her wrists, but it was only a matter of time. She just wanted to stay like this forever, forget landing, sleeping, eating. Well...she was certain that she would miss eating eventually, but for now she could forgo it for Clark's arms.

They were moving away, but her eyes were still fixed on the smoldering crash site. Even when they were out of the vicinity, when by all logic and reason she couldn't still have it in her peripherals she still swore that she could see a flicker of flame in the distance. She was seconds away from being ash and cinder with the rest of her fellow passengers. She kissed Clark's cheek, wanting to feel his skin against hers again. She had really, truly and honestly believed that she would never see him again and here he was, in the flesh, holding her close and just tight enough.

Clark could finally breathe, he hadn't even realized that his lungs were constricted until he had seen her again and the oxygen had flooded him once more. He had promised to bring her to see Lex one last time, and then he had been reluctant. Now it was next to impossible to imagine parting with her, even for a moment. He didn't want to let go, she was alive and even if he wasn't endowed with superpowers he still staunchly believed that her well being would have enabled him to leap over tall buildings in a single bound.

He knew that his conscience would torture him later for allowing a dozen people to perish in order to guarantee safety, but at the moment all he could feel was tantamount relief. She smelled like smoke, chloroform and days of not showering but that didn't matter. Hygiene be damned, he just wanted to hold her and know that she was alright. But he figured that she deserved to bathe before meeting up with Lex, though he felt equally certain that he wouldn't care about the state of her sanitation.

What was one more broken law, anyway? He broke into an empty house with ease, escorted her to the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Of course, he would have allowed her that dubious pleasure if the state of her wrists hadn't made itself painfully clear. He hoisted her onto the countertop, assessing her injuries analytically and deciding on the best course of action. Her jaw was so swollen that he knew it would be painful to speak, and as of yet he had yet to hear her voice, but there would be time for that later. He quickly set her right wrist and iced the left, but she didn't care about that for the time being.

She gingerly reached for his flannel collar and beckoned him forward, kissing him sweetly on the lips and bringing her bare legs around his waist, the only limbs that weren't injured. He should have resisted, but the truth was that he couldn't. She was alive, in one piece, and she wanted him. And he had no idea how long that would last, if when he brought her to the enemy she would change her mind but for the moment it was very clear what she wanted. She kissed him, not as roughly or passionately as she would have liked but with the tenderness of her jaw she was forced to make do.

They didn't speak as he lifted her shirt...well, technically _his shirt_ gently off of her and they shuffled toward the shower, never breaking contact. With fragmented logic he figured it would be more respectful if they resigned to the shower seeing as the house did not belong to them and for the sake of time. He didn't know exactly how long Lex expected him to take, but Lex was the farthest thing from his mind. Well, that wasn't true. As she kissed him, he couldn't help but think about how she must have kissed Lex, and seeing as she was only here due to the President's quick thinking Clark owed a lot to him, and he didn't like being in his debt. The water was a degree below boiling but neither of them minded, they were occupied with more urgent thoughts. He pressed her against the tile and kissed her bruised mouth, her jaw, then neck, throat, shoulder.

After a night of relying wholly on his otherworldly powers he finally felt human, vulnerable and afraid. Because what if after all of this, after the fear and excitement of her near death experience she wanted Lex? He pushed the thought from his mind, though he knew that it would only be a matter of time before he revisited the possibility.

**I got the number of Chloe's passouts from the Superman homepage. You guys are lucky, I thought about stopping this on a cliffhanger but figured I'd done that enough already.**


	46. Thank You

**Thanks for reviewing, I'm so glad you guys have been sticking with me until the end, it means a lot. Enjoy...**

All that Raul could think as the television buzzed from the living room, entirely forgotten by both members of the house, was that he really needed a drink. He tended to have a little bourbon after an important victory, though very few occasions qualified. He was emanating an aura of contentment, and it didn't go unnoticed.

His wife poured him a glass and kissed his cheek. "I see that you've had a good day."

He smiled up at her and nodded. "Very good, how about you?" he asked, taking the glass in his hand and taking a liberal sip.

"You know, the usual. Annabelle called; she's called it off with what's-his-face again. What a shocker that is. RJ was asking for more money; don't worry, I told him to get a job. What did we send him to college for if it wasn't to make his own living? I don't think he took my word as final, I don't doubt he'll sidle up to hit you up."

This didn't surprise him. "I'm sure he's already left me a message," he said, gesturing lazily to his now fully charged cell phone on the end table.

His wife smiled and batted his arm. "Sometime's you can be such a ditz. How can you forget your phone so often? I'd imagine it's important when you're fielding calls from those bigwigs," she said teasingly. He was at his usual perch, the lush and unbelievably expensive leather armchair he had bought less than a year before and Arianna was sitting on the armrest, arm draped over his shoulder.

Raul wasn't the type to allow anyone to potentially damage his material belongings, but she had always been the exception to the rule these twenty five years running. She ruffled his hair, somehow she had always been able to remain calm and entirely confident when it came to him while so many others were skittish, and for good reason.

But she was pretty and undeniably happy and held her own against him like no one else could, and perhaps it was because he had just disposed of the irritating and interesting Chloe Sullivan that he saw the similarities between the two of them.

"I can be a bit forgetful at times," he agreed, she was the only person alive that he was willing to concede to. "But I remember what counts."

She blushed, "Yes, you've yet to forget a birthday, anniversary or Valentine's Day and I've flaked on several. I really don't know how I got so lucky."

He often thought the same thing, and didn't hesitate to tell her. "Likewise."

A man more prone to self-evaluation would see the parallels between his relationship with Arianna and President Luthor's relationship with Chloe Sullivan. They were both different men when they were with the women they loved, and despite their more sinister natures both Raul and Lex would do anything to protect them. But Raul was either unable or simply unwilling to assess the situation from this standpoint; he simply lacked any form of empathy.

He finished his glass and she rose to refill it, it had been a part of their routine for years and this was the one situation in his life where it wasn't a power play. Their home was neutral ground, the place where he could somewhat put his guard down. Not to mention that she could mix his drink better than he could.

"Did you hear about that plane crash in Kansas?" she asked, back turned to him as she dropped a fresh set of ice cubes into his glass. It had been on the ten o'clock news before he had come home, but it was understandably causing quite a stir.

His spine stiffened, he was at home, he was relaxing and his guard was down so it took him a fraction of a second to revert to his true nature. Because despite the fact that he could power down when off the battle field, the truth was that his persona had stop being a mask he could slip on and off years ago. Now it was a permanent fixture. "Yes, I think I heard something about that. Why do you ask?"

She returned with his bourbon in one hand and a gin and tonic for herself in the other. She forced herself to shrug indifferently. "I knew you were over there today and it just stuck out to me."

They had been doing this for years, Arianna pretending as though she didn't see through his façade and he acting like he didn't realize that she wasn't capable of being selectively blind, though in the past quarter century she had done her best.

She was more than aware of exactly what her husband was capable of, he had never shown her through actions or words but she knew him and she knew enough about him to know his handiwork when she saw it. She had heard him mention the name of this Chloe Sullivan once or twice whilst he was on the phone, they had shared a drink the night of her arrest despite the fact that he had to shuttle back and forth from D.C. to Kansas. She knew that somehow her imprisonment meant something to him, and she didn't know exactly what. There had been a real eagerness about him, and though she tried to feign ignorance she vaguely knew what that keenness meant.

"Yeah, it's too bad," he said. And anyone else would have believed that he was reacting to the news in the same detached manner as most people did when it was something that didn't directly affect them, but she knew better.

He kissed her goodnight and went to bed, asking when she would follow. "I'll be up in a minute," she said with a smile.

She was happy with her life, for the most part. She had a husband who loved her and would do anything for her, over the years he had proven that time and time again. He had never lashed out in anger, never even came close regarding her but she could see the dormant danger…well, she had been ignoring it for some time and the time had passed for her to seriously assess its meaning. But she was a smart woman and incapable of lifelong willful self-deception. Every so often, and the times were getting more and more staggered, she wondered exactly what she knew and didn't know about her husband.

It was an odd feeling, being certain that the man she loved would kill to ensure his livelihood but she had been convinced of that for so long that it no longer disturbed her. Raul was successful, worked hard, doted on her, never gave another woman a look and the arguments they had worked themselves out in the end. By all accounts, he was a great husband and she couldn't imagine spending her life with anyone else.

Oh, yes, she was a lot more like Chloe than Raul imagined. And little did he know, he and Lex weren't entirely dissimilar.

"Are you coming?" he asked, stepping out of the bathroom in a robe and slippers, beckoning her forward with his curled index finger. He was victorious; he had defeated Lex and finally put the nail in the coffin of that inquisitive and pestering brat and he was ready to celebrate.

Arianna fidgeted, but it was more to sate her ethics than out of a real feeling of indecision. "Yeah, I'm coming." She walked over to her husband and he took her hand, lips brushing against her forehead before they walked up the elaborate staircase, arm in arm.

And therein laid the difference between Raul's wife and Lex's love; Arianna had set a pattern that proved unexpectedly unbreakable years ago wherein she pretended as though she couldn't see through to his darker nature. She wasn't a pushover, it would have been very easy for Chloe to have taken the same route, but years ago she had quite unwittingly thrown any sense of routine out the window and in the midst of confusion Lex and Chloe had never quite righted themselves.

* * *

Clark was really on a roll. Hijacking a convict, allowing a plane full of people to perish, breaking into a temporarily empty home (from his quick assessment Clark had determined that the owners were on vacation) and now stealing clothes from their unwitting hosts? Where would it stop?

He had scrounged up an ace bandage to wrap her wrists and dressed her in 'borrowed' clothes which consisted of a pair of boxer-like shorts and a t-shirt. She glanced in the mirror and smiled for the first time.

"I look like I'm going to a volleyball game," she said, her voice hoarse. She studied the bruise on her face and winced. "And in addition to being a serious athlete, I've got an abusive boyfriend." The shower had turned the bruise ugly…well, uglier in the very least.

Ever since he had rescued her from the plane they had not been more than a foot apart, and neither of them wished to break the closeness.

"How'd that happen?" Clark asked, trying for calm and placid but failing miserably. He wanted to wring the neck of whoever had done that to her, and he already had a good idea.

"The ringleader," she said glumly. He had never deigned to give her his name. "He doused me with enough chloroform to take down an elephant and then pistol whipped me. Ah, and the jerk chipped some of my teeth." Every word hurt to enunciate, but she ignored the pain. It would fade eventually but for now it was quite persistent.

"Was he on the plane?" she asked hopefully, but she already knew the answer before Clark shook his head. "Damn," she said, but without any feeling. She felt oddly hollow, like someone had removed her insides and replaced them with cool air; none of this felt real.

She figured she was still in shock, and Chloe couldn't shake the feeling that she was going to open her eyes and be plummeting to her inevitable doom once again. She didn't want to break contact with Clark, as though the moment she let him out of her sight she would wake up from this dream and be handcuffed to a crashing airplane again. But even as the thought this, the logical part of her brain was whirring and knew that there was no way she could be in this much pain if it were all just a dream.

She still had those god-awful plastic shoes on and she had the morbid thought of what it would feel and smell like if it melded to her flesh. She shuddered but did her best to control the tremor.

"What's wrong?" Clark asked, not fooled. Chloe smiled despite the fact that it hurt to do so; he didn't miss a trick, that man.

"I'm fine, just…it's going to be a while before I'm in tip top shape." To say the least, she had no idea how long she was going to experience flashbacks and déjà vu. And for the time being she had physical reminders constantly prompting a mental reenactment.

Before he had an opportunity to press for more information she didn't feel stable enough to go there, she changed the topic. "So…are we going to meet him?" He felt his heart restart at the hesitancy in her voice, but he didn't allow himself to hope too much.

It was clear that she was shaken, and it was to be expected so shortly after the closest near-death encounter she had ever experienced, and that was saying something seeing as she had lived in Smallville during her formative years.

"We don't have to," he said, uncertain whether or not he was reading her reluctance or projecting his own.

She gave him a hard look and he had to remind himself that he was the one with x-ray vision, not her. "I think we do." And he knew that she was right, but it didn't make him like it. He had meant what he said, and truth of the matter he knew that when he filled Chloe in on all of the details she wouldn't be willing to back away so easily.

If there was one thing that could be counted on, it was Clark's rigid set of principles prohibiting him from breaking his word, and Lex had been depending on that. The threats had simply been insurance.

"You can sleep first if you want," he said, more than willing to prolong the inevitable.

Chloe shook her head. "Not now, though I did get in a fair bit of exercise," she said with a smile, and he grinned sheepishly at the comment. In the heat of the moment he had been combatting a series of complex emotions; immense relief that she was okay, unbridled joy that he could see and touch her again, eagerness to enjoy the moment as long as he could until he had to tell her about Lex and fear that he could lose her for good. He tried his best to ignore the negative feelings, but they had come back more strongly than before.

When she saw that he still wasn't satisfied, she continued. "I spent the majority of the day in a state of unwanted unconsciousness anyway." She knew that if she went to sleep an uneasy slumber would overcome her, but it would certainly be tainted by nightmares that she wished to avoid for the time being. She would cross that bridge when she came to it, but she didn't need that accompanied with the pressure of seeing Lex again.

Resigned, Clark came to his feet in a fluid motion and disappeared. If Chloe had sneezed, she would have missed the moment, and before she could react he reappeared. "I wanted to leave everything the way we found it," he said.

They walked toward the door and he locked the top lock, hoping that when the family returned they wouldn't notice that only one lock was activated.

Chloe looked at him furtively, clearly garnering the courage to ask something. He felt uneasy, but waited for her to speak. "He really...he really helped, didn't he?" she asked, voice an octave aboe normal. Why she was even bothering to try to pretend as though this didn't mean something to her was beyond him.

Clark contemplated lying...or at least he considered it for a fraction of a second before dismissing it. "Yeah, he really did. I wouldn't have found you in time if it wasn't for him." He glanced at her quickly and didn't like what he saw. She tried her best to keep her expression neutral, but she was clearly affected. He just didn't know to what extent.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and she instinctively stepped onto the top of his feet, she had long ago stopped worrying about her weight hurting him seeing as the man could be hit by a meteor without getting a single scratch. He shot off, and if anyone were watching they would have thought that their eyes were playing tricks on them. In the blink of an eye, Clark and Chloe were out of sight.

* * *

While Clark and Chloe made their way to the coordinates, Lex was predictably pacing back and forth, covering the length of the small field. Next to ruling the country, antagonizing Clark and confusing the hell out of Chloe, pacing was the thing he did best.

He had known that this acre of land was currently on the market and the likelihood of potential buyers coming to scope it out around midnight was slim to none, leaning towards none. There was no good source of light, apart from the waxing gibbous moon that bathed the field in a hazy stream of moonlight. He purposefully didn't bring his disposable phone or any form of communication because he didn't want to know. There was no other option, she was okay because she needed to be okay.

Perhpas it was silly, but he couldn't help but feel that if Raul's attempt had been successful he would feel an undeniable change in emotion and an alteration in his being, perhaps a rip in what was left of his soul or a sudden wave of inexplicable grief. But no such feeling ever overtook him, and he took solace in that.

But this didn't change the fact that it had been hours, and he was still here and she was nowhere in sight. For the first time Lex hoped that Clark was hogging her, keeping her away because he was putting off the reunion for as long as possible. He had to admit that this was exactly what he would have done if the tables were turned, and he was equally certain that he wouldn't have kept up Clark's end of the bargain.

Lex had long since regarded Clark with a mixture of disdain and jealousy, but in the past few days he had formed a grudging respect for him, that was not to say that he liked him anymore or despised him any less, he just had a better scope and understanding of what made him tick. Even Lex knew that he could count on him keeping his word.

He kept his eyes skyward optimistically, but the sun had set long ago and the sky was overcast so that the likelihood of him spotting Clark was slim to none. His intestines felt like they were in a tight coil and a knot the size of a boulder had taken residence in the pit of his stomach. All the could think about was her, not that this was such a monumentous change from the norm. He loved her and he could never let her go. He liked to think that if she asked him and really meant it he could leave her be, but he wasn't sure that it was true. And he never wanted to find out.

It had been like a dream when he saw her approach from the distance, despite the fact that in his dreams she usually wore different attire. _What is she wearing?_ It was funny the first thought that had popped into his mind had nothing to do with her well being, but maybe that was because he couldn't believe that she was really there.

Her hair was still damp from her recent shower and the purposefulness of her stride suggested that she was in some sort of pain that she dearly wished to conceal. Of course Clark stood behind her like a looming shadow, close enough to touch though for the moment they were detached. Lex was surprised that he didn't grip her once they came into his field of vision, but maybe he was just projecting his own behavior.

The relief that she was alright outweighed his innate irritation at Clark's proximity to her, and before he knew it he was headed toward her, moving too quickly to call it a walk and not quite fast enough for it to be a run. Despite his mental assurances that nothing could have possibly happened to her he felt a relief so tantamount that it threatened to overwhelm him. She was alive and, despite its innumerable flaws, all was right with the world.

He felt a sharp pain spring up in his chest and before he knew it he was wiping his eyes. While normally this show of emotion would have embarrassed him he was beyond caring. The moment she was within reach he gripped her hands and pulled her into a bracing hug so that he couldn't see her cringe. He clung to her smell, her warmth and he didn't want to let go but propriety got the better of him.

The look on Clark's face was inscrutable and as soon as Lex released jer he pulled Chloe away. "Just one second," he said. Lex thought of protesting but he was too giddy to give that inclination any weight. She was alive, Raul had been outmaneuvered at last...she was alive. He realized that this mattered more than beating his nefarious foe.

As soon as they were out of earshot Clark said, "How long do you want me to leave for?" he asked.

Chloe's eyebrows shot up. "Leave? You don't have to..." she started saying, but he cut her off.

"No, it's fine. I'll go, you should be able to say what you want without worrying about me," he said bluntly. He was trying to prove to himself that he wasn't like Lex, he could leave her to her own devices, he could trust her. In performing this selfless act he desperately wanted to squash away any and all similarity between the President's character and his own. He was nothing like Lex...despite the fact that he had very recently done a very Lex-like thing. Superman wouldn't have let those people die, but Clark Kent had been willing to make the sacrifice.

Chloe shook her head resolutely, getting a little wrinkle of determination on her forehead. "You can listen, I've got nothing to hide. If we're going to..." she began to say, but at the last moment she changed her mind, "there's nothing I'm going to say or do that you can't hear, okay?" she said, smiling deliberately. It was difficult to do, but she maintained it through the pain.

And that was a very difficult speech to resist, but he tried valiantly. "I trust you," _but I don't trust him,_ "I'll be out of hearing distance," he promised.

She opened her mouth to protest, but he had a stubborn look about him that alerted her that any attempt would be futile. "Give me...twenty minutes. A half hour, tops." He nodded stiffly and scrutinized her face, looking for the least painful place to kiss and settled on the bridge of her nose before turning to walk away. He didn't go into super speed until he was out of view.

The feeling of his lips lingered on her as she turned and walked back toward Lex, but he met her halfway. "Clark said you wanted to talk to me," she said, voice slightly hoarse. His eyes instantly narrowed and he cursed the fact that he hadn't chosen a meeting place with ample light. In the darkness he hadn't been able to assess her injuries, but now he could see that her cheek was swollen and she was nursing her arms. He immediately remembered that he had grabbed her by the wrists when he first saw her and felt a wave of remorse. She hadn't made a sound.

"You're hurt." She wanted to roll her eyes and make a clever comment, but she settled for a curt nod.

"Raul?" he asked, though it was more a statement than a question. The single word was loaded with hatred.

"Who?" she asked and Lex felt another jolt of anger. Clark hadn't deigned to fill her in? In the back of his mind he knew that he didn't want to force her to relive the experience, and it hit Lex like a blow to the solar plexus that Clark had all the time in the world to let her know the details while he only had a measly half hour.

He wanted to be the one to give her information, satisfy that insatiable curiosity but they didn't have enough time to delve into the identity of her captor, so he shelved that for the moment. He knew that he was working against the clock. They had thought they were out of earshot, but he was able to grasp the majority of the conversation. Clark was a fool for surrendering his natural advantage due to some misplaced sense of nobility. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't imagine ever doing something like that.

"It's not important right now. All that matters is that you're all right. You are all right, right?" he asked, knowing that he was wasting precious time but he couldn't stop himself. Clark never would have brought her out, promise or no, if she had been in any state of peril.

She shrugged, forgetting just how painful it would be. Despite her attempt to conceal, Lex had a discerning eye and caught her wince. "Nothing that won't heal," she justified, raising her hands to show the bandages. The light was of such a quality that he couldn't quite see the full scope of her facial injuries, but he felt the familiar rage lick his insides. Raul was dead. If there had ever been a shadow of a doubt, it disippated in that moment. There was no getting around that now.

He considered how to proceed, but she surprised him per usual by speaking first. She stepped forward, closing the distance between them hesitantly. There was nothing amorous in her approach, he saw that clearly, but he knew better than to expect that.

"I just...thank you. Clark said...and I...thank you." He couldn't help from smiling at her inarticulate but heartfelt words and he resisted the urge to grab her by the hands and kiss her, relief and love overpowering common sense. But he refrained, just barely, and only due to her shattered wrists. Clark's claim on her had no bearing on his resistance.

He leaned in, more than willing to bridge the gap. "You know that I'd do anything for you," even working outside the parameters of the laws he was supposed to be protecting and enforcing, "Clark told me about what you were planning." More like he had let it slip in the midst of the chaos, but Lex had stashed the information away for later use.

She could read his attitude from the tone of his voice, and through the limited moonlight she could see the stony expression on his face. "Were? No, we _are_ still planning on it. Now more than ever. In case you forget, I'm dead. We don't exactly have a lot of options."

And he hadn't forgotten. Actually, far from it, it had been an idea that had consumed his thoughts entirely ever since he had realized that faking her demise was the soundest way to protect her. "I am well aware of that," he said, having already decided how best to lead her into the conversation.

She shattered his plans. "Quit skating around like Michelle Kwan and just say what you're going to say," she said, stifling a yawn. Chloe looked so worn that he wasn't sure whether it was real or she was playing it up in order to emphasize her point, but either way the effect was good.

Chloe had seen that he had a briefcase with him, and that was hardly conducive to conducting a simple goodbye. She knew him, and knew that he had to have something up his sleeve. He always did.

"So what exactly did you two plan on? Running off to some tropical location and living out your life in exile? You're going to play Suzy Homemaker while Clark flits off to enact vigilante justice in remote areas around the world?"

She quirked her eyebrow. "Which of those questions would you like me to answer first or have you already reached your own conclusion?" she asked cooly.

He ignored that. "I know right now it looks like a viable option, but I know you," and he insisted on flaunting his knowledge, "do you really think that will work in the long run?" That struck her, because the fact of the matter was that she hadn't thought that far in advance.

She gave up the pretense of playing coy. She had just had one too many near-death experiences to spend the duration of this conversation lying and telling half truths. The tables had turned; for once she had him in a position from which he couldn't escape and there was something extremely liberating in that fact.

For all intents and purposes she was considered dead, her boyfriend was a superhero who could move faster than she speed of sound, melt bullets with his eyes and fly to Tibet and back during the length of a TV commercial who would, if he could, die for her. In addition to these perks, she was well aware of the fact that after all of this Lex couldn't sic his hounds on her or actively search for her without evoking suspicion. Being frank wouldn't be detrimental, and after all the years of playing games it might even be refreshing.

"I don't know," she said honestly, "I just wanted to get away from the restriction, the surveillance, the paranoid feeling that someone was conspiring against me. Well, now I know that there actually is a governmental cover-up conspiracy I feel considerably more justified."

Just when he thought he had her figured out, she surprised him again. When would he stop trying? But if they had their way he wouldn't have much opportunity to chose a viable alternative. "I'm not knocking the ample pleasures of an extended vacation, God knows I could use one myself," running a country, trying to manipulate his ex and then save her from the clutches of someone he once considered an ally turned out to be quite the job. "But now that the threat is neutralized and you've got another forty plus years to go until, well..."

She rolled her eyes at his unwillingness to discuss the inevitable. "Yeah, until I face down a death sentence that not even the Man of Steel or the Commander in Chief can prevent."

He nodded stiffly. "Yes...but until then I know that you won't be happy spending the remainder of your life, a life you're not even halfway into yet, floating around aimlessly," he said, and his voice had an eager and persuasive sound to it.

"What are you up to?" she asked. His words rang true and she hated that he was so obnoxiously right. Of course, she was more than willing to surrender certain liberties in order to stay alive and free, but living purposelessly really didn't appeal to her. That wasn't to say that she couldn't and wouldn't do it, but since her youth she had always been the overly analytical one to wonder at the end of classic westerns and romances what happened after the hero and heroine rode off into the sunset, and now that idle curiosity had actually become relevant to her life.

Could the cowboy simply give up chasing down fiends and robbers so he could have some cookie cutter life with his lovely bride? Would 2.5 kids and a white picket fence make up for the fact that all objectives and goals had gone out the window? But this was quite the opposite, Clark was excited for this new start and she was worried how she would hold up when put out to pasture.

Abstractly she had always thought that Clark was the cowboy, perhaps conditioned to think so due to sexism and the fact that he resembled a vigilante western hero in more ways than one, but she hadn't considered that she was equally driven by her passions. She hadn't wanted Clark to give such a vital piece of himself up, despite the fact that he was willing to hang up the cape, but she had never thought about what this would mean for her.

Even using a fake name in a foreign country wasn't foolproof, if even a whisper of her identity escaped this Raul fellow that Lex spoke of with hate and reverance would hunt down the lead until he was certain it was a dead end or she was a grease spot.

Before she was on the lam even taking a paid vacation had gotten stale after only a week or so, she was always itching to be doing something else, something productive. She was not built for a life of leisure, even working a thankless job with minimal pay made her happy. Ever since she was a child she knew that her life's ambition was to get the truth out, work for the common man and against the political machine and ironically enough even two decades later she was still doing just that, and now it was all coming to a crashing end...literally and figuritively.

On this side of her close encounter that was a sobering thought, it wasn't a game changer but it was enough to shake her to her core. "But there's nothing else for me to do," she said, momentarily surrendering the power she had accrued so easily in order to sate his ego. She knew that he wouldn't be spending so much of their precious and limited time on the topic if he didn't have something he wanted to say. His pride had always been an obstacle in being concise, and he so desperately wanted an opening and she was willing to give it to him.

She normally rued the fact that they were so attuned to each other emotionally as well as physically, but every once in a while she could play it to their mutual advantage.

Lex lifted the brief case, as she knew that he would. "Oh, yes there is."

Chloe smiled, and for the first time it didn't pain her to do so. She didn't even think about it, the expression just tugged at the corners of her mouth and formed without her consent. It had always been strangely easy with them, and yet so hard at the same time. She felt a mixed bag of emotions, curiosity strong and prevalent but hesitancy not far behind. She knew whatever he had planned would be carefully formatted so that he could remain a part of her life, the latest quid pro quo.

He could give her what she wanted and on some level needed if only she could surrender her anonymity. And, per usual with Lex, this was a double edged sword. They were not the platonic type, of that she was certain. With Clark they had been able to coexist with relative ease as only friends and confidants, but she knew that her and Lex's relationship was very different from that.

They couldn't live as colleagues or friendly acquaintances, especially seeing as over the years their feelings hadn't faded. On the contrary, the extended separation had convinced Lex that she was the woman he wanted to spend his life with and forced her to come to the conclusion that no matter how hard she fought it he had carved out a permanent spot in her life and her heart.

"And what magic trick do you have up your sleeve this time?" she asked. Chloe tried to sound only mildly curious, but the sporatic fluttering of her heart gave her away.

He opened the brief case and pulled out a thick manila folder. It felt anticlimactic, but then again she didn't even have a concrete idea of what she expected. Lex handed her the folder without a word, and she automatically flipped it open.

"What's this?" He had anticipated that.

"You and Clark can flit off to a new beach every fortnight. You can be relegated to the task of cheerleader and cook while Clark tries to make a difference in the world. You can let the fire fade until all that's left is a shadow of the extraordinary woman you were and you can let Clark feel resentful for being forced to be your keeper and you can become bitter because you peaked at thirty and have no outlet for your ambitions--"

She cut him off. "Wow, you're really trying to sell this sinister plot of yours, aren't you?" she asked mildly, knowing that nothing would irritate him more than having her dismiss his sales pitch. She wouldn't let him realize just how hard his words had hit her. How could he always do this? Without fail he could pick up on each and every one of her insecurities, even the ones she hadn't realized she had been nursing. He had echoed her very deepest fear.

"Eight months," he said abruptly. Her features contorted in confusion before she could summon a sufficient poker face, but that was exactly the reaction he had been hoping for. "You can hide in whatever remote location suits your fancy for eight months, that should be long enough for you to realize that a life of leisure isn't in your best interest."

She leafed through the papers, straining her eyes and looking closely for the very first time. It was difficult without her glasses but after a moment she gasped. Passports, a driver's license with her picture. There was no alteration, no elongated nose or different colored hair, she was simply as is. She tried in vain to find some flaw with the paperwork, but it was perfect, as she knew it would be.

"It's all untraceable, you've got a social security number, I fabricated a work history with an excellent resource," he said, the pinnacle of modesty per usual. "You've got a birth certificate, a bank account and if anyone were to delve into details it's all there and it's flawless. I made sure of that. You aren't going to live a nameless, faceless specter without prospects. I simply can't allow that."

Chloe glanced up at him, shock clear on her face. "How did you...oh my god." She didn't know what to say, but she felt a rush of emotion that temporarily caused decorum to fly out the window. She threw her arms around his neck with reckless abandon, knowing that she would pay dearly for it later. She ignored the instant pain and clung tight to him.

He embraced her with equal enthusiasm and he realized that he would have done anything in the world to have her hug him like this. He lifted her bodily from the ground, glad that her back at least was unscathed. He wanted to kiss her, not that this was such a surprise. He always wanted to kiss her, but with her in such a close proximity it made the temptation harder to resist. But she pulled away, folder still clutched between her fingers so that she wouldn't need to move her wrist.

"But what about...I mean, it's me. No physical alterations, you even left my first name the same!" she said, glancing down at the paperwork accusingly before smirking when she read the remainder of her alias. _Of course._

He shrugged. "You're Chloe, I couldn't imagine you as anyone else."

Shelving this illogical point, she pressed on. "What if something gets back to that murderous asshole? What if he comes after me again?" To her credit her voice didn't quaver with fear, but that didn't make her anxiety any less evident.

Lex looked down at her, eyes locking. "He won't," he said simply.

Chloe shook her head, "You don't know that for sure."

"I do," he had always wanted to say that with her standing next to him, even if it wasn't in the right context.

She peered up at him. "How?" But she already knew the answer.

"Raul is not long for this world." It didn't surprise her, but she still felt the familiar sickening jolt in her stomach at his words.

She wanted to feel righteous indignation, to feel that old feeling that every human life is valuable, that justice should prevail in the long run but all she could feel was relief from the ends of her hair to the tips of her toes. "Are you sure that won't just be like cutting off Hydra's head? One or two won't just spring up in his place?"

Lex shook his head, staring at her with some powerful emotion that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "No, he's a solitary man. While those he represent are skittish he played up on their anxieties, and they are sheep. Quite easily led. It was personal with you, but once he's gone the rest of the organization will crumble. It's unavoidable, he played down your arrest to the best of his ability. Of course your cousin tried to flare up interest, and to some degree she succeeded but it's nothing that won't flounder in the coming weeks. You weren't public enemy, he didn't want to arouse a lot of suspicion when he had you killed." She didn't flinch at the casual mention of her planned death.

"And if someone sees me when we resurface? If someone happens to stumble upon me on the street, how would I explain that?"

As usual, he had a ready made answer. "Not everyone is like you, Chloe. Most people are more than willing to accept what they're told and are willing to believe the more logical rationale. Governmental conspiracy? Massive coverup? Stuff like that's just in the movies and John Grisham novels," he said with a short laugh.

"Such a politician, you still didn't answer my question."

"The only people you were close with are going to know about this," he said. He didn't want to get into who qualified as 'close' but of course she knew. Clark, Lex and Lois were the only people who would really miss her if she was gone. Her former coworkers would lament her passing without any genuine emotion. The majority of them could probably pass her on the street and not pick her out. "Not to mention the fact that where you are going to relocate is hardly a vacation destination."

His words startled her and she peered closely at the paperwork, picking up her new residence's name for the first time. She frowned. "Really? This has been dubbed the most dangerous city in America twenty years running."

He smiled cheerfully. "Yes, and it's unlikely any acquaintances will bump into you there. I've got you a job interview eight months from tomorrow. Well, interview is a bit of an overstatement. Let's just say the CEO owes me and this exchange will be more of a formality than anything else."

And therein laid the conundrum. He knew that she couldn't resist the opportunity to have a life, a real honest-to-god life where she could go out in public, have a career, have a purpose. She could have lived in peace and quiet without complaint, but now that there was an alternative it was hard for her to settle for the original plan. She still had so much vitality, an eagerness to do good and do what she was good at. It would have been hard, but not impossible, for her to sit idly by while Clark saved the world and she waited for him to come home.

It also raised another problem, an issue she had thought that she had finally resolved. Lex would be able to pinpoint her at any time if she assumed this ready made identity, he could always interject himself in her life, though now that all their cards were laid on the table he could no longer manipulate her the same way. Chloe had thought that she was going to escape him once and for all, but as usual Lex wasn't going to let go quite so easily.

Lex knew exactly what he was doing. He knew how Clark would feel about this unexpected hiccup, how the man of steel would react when he realized once again that he wasn't Chloe's savior. He could offer her what Clark couldn't, and that fact would tear him apart and instill a seed of doubt and jealousy. And that was exactly what he wanted to do. He could use Clark's insecurities to his advantage and the alleged Superman would do the rest.

"I know that right about now you're weighing the pros and the cons, wondering if sticking to your original plan would really be so unfulling. But you already know the answer to that, don't you? You aren't Lana Lang, though I hope by now you know that. And you should be very glad of it, too. For all her beauty and charisma she really is quite vapid, transparent. Try as I may I can never see through you while even a decade after the dissolution of our so-called relationship I could cut her down with a look. I think she would welcome the alternative you thought you were doomed for, living out your days domesticated. Learning to cook, maybe even trying to reproduce," the thought of that sickened him, but he did his best to conceal it.

"But you are never going to be happy accepting mediocrity, living in exile. Sure, you can try to volunteer, get a menial job in some third world country but that's never going to be enough for you. Because like it or not, you and I are the same. We're not of the same flesh and bone, of course, but we're of the same spirit. It sounds hokey, doesn't it? But it doesn't make it any less true.

"While I crave power and you crave purpose, we both long for meaning in the random and neither of us is satisfied laying in wait. Did Clark tell you that it was I who recruited him after you were arrested? I hate him, you know. I hate what he stands for, despise his martyrdom and his weakness despite his inherent physical strength. I hate that he loves you and what I hate most of all is that you love him. I can see it, I wish I couldn't. I wish I could say that you love me more but I'm not even sure if it's a matter of more or less, but you need him in your life, God only knows why. And you need me, like it or not. You might not realize it, but you will. We are both dogged to a fault, unwilling to compromise on what is important. You know that you can try to hide from me, to lose me but in the end you'll lose yourself. Is it really worth it?"

She couldn't answer that question, she was stunned by the direction his monologue had taken. He was prone to exaggeration and when passionate and intense his speech pattern truly reminded her of that fictional serial killer they discussed at length. He was a kindred spirit, though she didn't want to acknowledge it after they had parted ways. What he said made her feel strangely empowered, vindicated even, though she didn't understand why.

"I love you," she said, and his eyebrows jumped. It was a statement of fact, not a revelation or an attempt to persuade. "And even when I'm old and my ass is sagging to the ground I'm still going to feel that way. And you're right, it's the same deal with Clark. And I've already chosen, you know that. I'm not indecisive, I've loved you long enough to know that it's not subject to change, it isn't a variable in my life it's a constant." It was the same with him, different people, positions and possessions rose and fell in consequence but she always remained unchanged.

"And I want you to listen to me, and I want you to hear loud and clear because any minute now Clark's going to come back and I'm going to go. I pick Clark, and I know that's not a surprise but I think you need me to say it for it to register. I love him, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life with him...be it on a beach or in murder capital USA. I'm not going to toy with your emotions or keep a foot in both camps. I've made my decision, so if you're hoping to dissuade me you're going to be--"

He cut her off, as she half expected him to do from the get go. He placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her gently on the lips. In all honesty, it was as close to a chaste kiss as they had ever gotten. He felt warm and sturdy and as always he stirred a dormant feeling that started in the pit of her stomach and fluttered upward. She had expected this, she had known that he wasn't going to let her go without putting up a good fight. He was the one to pull away and for the first time in recent memory she didn't respond by physically assaulting him.

"What was that for?" she asked, slightly lightheaded.

He left his hands on her shoulders, relishing the proximity. He glanced down at his watch, they're time was nearly up. "Just saying goodbye." But that hadn't felt like a goodbye kiss, and both of them knew it. "Eight months," he said. "If you turn up for the interview, I'll know. Even if you don't, do you really think I won't be able to find you? Make the right decision."

And she already knew that she would, of course she would make the obligatory pro and con list, discuss the options with Clark but her mind was already made up. Mere moments before Clark returned she went up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to Lex's cheek, envelope underneath her arm. She was going to get the last word, and he didn't expect anything less.

"Thank you," she said, hoping that he got the message. But it was hard to maintain her resolve when he was so close and she wanted him so badly, but she would deal with it. She had to.

He watched her walk away and even when she had disappeared from view he continued to stare, as though hoping to catch one last glimpse of her. The taste of her skin burned in his memory, and he knew that he would never forget it.

They had left their mark on each other, and despite her protestations he still believed that some day things would change. And knowing Clark, he hoped that they would. It certainly wouldn't help the Man of Steel adjust to the situation when he realized that Lex had dubbed her Chloe Josephine Alexander.

**I really contemplated leaving it on a cliffhanger at "Oh, yes there is." but I decided to supersize the chapter. This is a HUGE chapter so PLEASE REVIEW! Good, bad, anything! Next is the last! Please reward the lack of cliffie with reviews!**


	47. Resolutions, Reconnaissance, Retribution

**Last chapter. Oh god, it's really hard to bring it all to an end! Enormous chapter, I can hardly believe that I wrote this much. Hope it's worth the wait.**

**EIGHT MONTHS TO THE DAY**

Chloe smoothed her skirt nervously as the model-esque secretary stationed in the waiting room discreetly appraised her before calling her by her new name and summoning her to the head honcho's office. It felt strange to be called Ms. Alexander but she supposed it was something she would have to get used to.

The secretary smiled sweetly and asked if there was anything she could get her and while her delivery was flawless Chloe still sensed inexplicable underlying hostility. She refused politely, though perhaps with the trace of a stammer, and rose from the leather couch and headed down a long corridor.

The waiting room seemed to be more for show than use, and she felt strange andf out of place reading the pristine magazines and crossing and uncrossing her legs on a couch that most likely cost more than the summation of every car she had ever owned.

She knocked on the appropriate door brazenly, banishing her tentativeness for the purpose of appearing more confident than she really was. She had taken quite a hiatus from the work force, and though she was reluctant to admit it even to herself the job seemed perfectly suited to her, even if she wasn't completely filled in on all of the particulars. She hadn't been given many details, but from what she researched she sensed that it was going to be a good fit.

"Come in," a voice lazily commanded and she complied.

Her future boss stood by his desk and stepped forward the moment she walked through the threshold, offering his hand before she had a chance to get her bearings. He was handsome with an athletic build, a wonderfully tailored suit and dark hair and eyes. For all intents and purposes he seemed as confident and bold as she was pretending to be, though she caught a whiff of playboy that was hard for him to mask even in a business setting. Though she could see the legendary appeal she couldn't imagine being attracted to him, he exuded cockiness from every pore.

"Ms. Alexander, at last we meet." He offered her a seat and made the necessary introductions, ignoring the raise of her eyebrows. She felt vaguely surprised that someone so high up in the company would be interviewing her personally, but when it came to Lex nothing really shocked her anymore.

She smiled broadly and projected the certainty she desired. It was easier than she thought it would be with the amount of self-assurance already floating around the room. He asked the typical questions and seemed to know more about her assumed identity than she did.

"Listen, Ms. Alexander," he said, and she considered asking him to call her Chloe but figured attempts at such familiarity would have to wait.

She listened.

"You've got the job; I won't sport your intelligence by pretending like there was ever a doubt on that front. You come very highly recommended." She tried to keep her face impassive, but it was difficult. She wasn't sure what she felt most strongly; flattery or irritation. She hated that Lex felt the persistent need to manipulate and pull strings when it came to her. She was very good at what she did and she would prefer earning her stripes the good old fashioned way, like she had always done before.

"But I do have some questions of a personal nature that I'm compelled to ask that most certainly go against the interviewing policies. But seeing as you're already hired...I don't need to abide by these, do I?" he asked, but it really wasn't a question.

Ah this reeked of Lex, even now he was interrogating her through another. She didn't know what leverage he must have on him, but it must be hefty to get a straight up businessman to give an important job to a relative stranger and quiz her on her personal life during the interview. It was quite creative, but she could still see through him like a sheet of cellophane.

She concealed a smile and momentarily contemplated refusing, but the inclination never took hold. She owed a lot to Lex, more than she could ever repay.

* * *

A reasonable amount of time had passed between when the plane crashed and Raul passed away. Well, murdered is a more accurate term, but if the population at large was aware of that Lex's plan would have failed. And Lex never failed. At least, rarely, but that didn't sound anywhere near as foreboding.

Raul fell for Lex's facade, perhaps because it was beyond the realm of possibility to consider that Chloe had somehow survived the devastating crash. By sheer luck the replacement corpse's jaw and teeth were damaged to such an extent that dental records weren't a help but regardless there hadn't been any real investigation into the identity of the passengers. The real cause for curiosity was the reason for the technical malfunction.

After a few days the story died, but it made for good news while it lasted. Symone of course exploited it for her own purposes, and worked on the relative angle. Lois worked hard to maintain a grieving front when she was really celebrating her cousin's freedom. For a few terrifying days she had thought that she would lose her forever, now they were just going to have to deal with the distance. Who could have possibly known that a few mere months later, Lois would become a legend in the journalistic world?

Lex was sufficiently cowed by the supposed loss of Chloe, Raul resumed business, never once alluding to the incident. But there was something in his stride, if his confidence had already been insurmountable there was no way to describe it now. How would he know that all along Lex was plotting his demise?

Raul was selfish and consistently underestimated the lengths that Lex was willing to go to in order to save the woman he loved and revenge himself of Raul once and for all. And when it came to a man like Lex, simply disabling the enemy wasn't enough. He needed to destroy them.

Chloe was legally dead for nearly three months when he came home after a busy day of intimidating subordinates and threatening the livelihood of a call girl who threatened to expose the sexual predilections of a cabinet member to the masses. She was silenced and he was victorious, yet again.

It had never been Raul's ambition to be a major player in the party, being the President or Secretary of State never really appealed to him. He wasn't a public figure, and he liked it like that. He wasn't held to a certain standard and those who employed him weren't accountable for his actions. They could always claim ignorance if his unscrupulous dealings were ever brought into the light of day and in that case Raul would simply shunt the blame on a scapegoat.

It was after midnight and Arianna was already in bed, but he was too keyed up to join her just yet. He poured himself a glass of bourbon and savored it, not realizing that there was someone else in his living room until he turned to sit in his favorite chair and found it already occupied.

"President Luthor," he said without inflection. "What a surprise." But his voice didn't register said surprise. He contemplated evasive action or an attack strategy, he had a gun stationed nearby, but reconsidered when he thought of his wife.

Lex inclined his head as way of greeting and his mind seemed to have gone in the same direction. "Kindly keep your voice down; I'd hate to wake your wife. It would be most unfortunate." The threat lingered in the air and Raul absorbed it somewhat unwillingly.

This at least ruffled him, and that only meant that he blinked harder than usual. "No need to bring an outside party into this discussion," he agreed.

"My thoughts exactly," Lex said, eyes flashing with some indiscernible emotion, "though we haven't always been of the same mind on this matter."

Raul quirked a well-exercised eyebrow. "Is that what this is about?" As though he didn't know it the moment he saw Lex lounging in his living room. He honestly hadn't suspected this retribution after so much time had passed, but now that he was here there was no possible alternative explanation.

But Lex had invaded his living space and for that he would pay most dearly. "Still pouting over the untimely death of your whore?" he asked. There was no point in maintaining pleasantries, he could see from the hard and malicious look in Lex's eyes that he couldn't talk his way out of this or outwit him.

And Lex was ready for it. He knew that Raul would bait and mock him and try to get a rise out of him but this didn't stop his heart rate from jumping, his teeth from clenching or being overcome with the near irresistible desire to wrap his hands around that rodent's neck and squeeze every ounce of life from him. "I guess you could say that," he said mildly.

"Well, well. All of this plotting and vengeance is really for naught. What's done is done and killing me won't change anything." Au contraire.

Lex shrugged with a knowing smiling. "Agree to disagree."

Raul remained unruffled. "And how do you plan on accomplishing this feat? I suppose the more violence the better, I'm getting the impression that you want to rend me limb from limb and let the innards spill to the floor." And that was a tempting notion, but Lex had something else in mind. Raul had no intention of dying, but figured the longer he could keep Lex talking the better.

"That does sound appealing, but I'm afraid I have another method I've worked out. All that's left to decide is if you want to venture to hell alone or bring dear Arianna along with you." Despite all of Raul's feigned indifference and masterful poker face, Lex reveled in the fact that he notably flinched at this threat.

Anger swelled up and he couldn't conceal it. "She is completely and totally innocent; do not bring her into your selfish quest for revenge."

Lex smirked and this just made Raul's temper flare up even further. "And what's Chloe? An active participant?"

Raul snarled, a hideous look that rivaled his smile. "You knew full well what she was. She had proven herself to be a nuisance before and you couldn't keep her under control. She didn't even want to be with you! I don't know why you bothered protecting her so. She was practically living with that Kent fellow, and now he's gone AWOL. Personally I thought that he would assassinate you and save me the trouble, but it seems if you want to do something right you've got to do it yourself."

Far from shaking in his boots, Lex merely smiled and this vexed Raul to no end. He was accustomed to people taking him seriously and did not like when those he considered to be his inferiors took him lightly. And to him, even the Commander in Chief was a lesser being.

"I would understand this if it were to happen say the day after the unfortunate crash, but three months later? I just don't understand the justification." Raul just wanted to get Lex on a tangent and distract him. He didn't see a weapon and had no idea what his plan was, but he had to reluctantly admit that Lex was a formidable enemy and he had to tread lightly. But this was his home, his turf, and he had a strong survival instinct that trumped Lex's bloodlust.

Lex shook his head archly, a grim smile playing across his lips. "You have me mistaken for a Bond villain; I don't plan on divulging that information." Raul bristled, his unease hampering his usually excellent ability to conceal his emotions. "But you, on the other hand, are going to tell me where you keep your information."

Raul locked eyes with Lex, taking a nervous sip from his drink. "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. I've done some research on you and you are not the sort of man to enter into an important business alliance without extensive background on your so-called ally. One could say that you have leverage over us all."

This was hardly a secret so Raul didn't even feel the slightest inkling to react to this information. "Most competent businessmen research those who they are working with. If you were adept you would do the same." He wanted to elicit a reaction, something or anything to put Lex off of his game. He knew that the President was a formidable ally, and the more ruffled and incoherent he got him the better.

Instead of retorting, Lex shrugged complacently. "If you were listening, you would have realized that I did. There is going to be a change in power and with that change there will need to be a clean slate," Raul's lips twitched and Lex figured that it was as close to a look of bewilderment that he was going to get, "meaning that I need to clean house."

Raul would have done the same, albeit in a more violent manner. Lex was surrounded by a board of trustees who worked around him instead of with him and thought that they were better equipped to run the country than he was. Raul only felt frustrated that he didn't realize that this would be on the agenda sooner.

"You broke into my house and threatened my life and livelihood and you expect me to acquiesce to this ridiculous favor?"

And he still didn't get it; perhaps it was best that he didn't. There was no 'acquiescing,' no matter what he did Raul was not going to walk away from this. He was dead. He just refused to acknowledge the fact.

Raul wasn't the type to simply accept that he had been beaten, especially when he had so completely believed that Chloe's demise had spelled the end of President Luthor's rebellion. "You are going to give me that information, I am not asking, I'm telling. You're not the only one to do your homework."

Raul's cool demeanor turned icy. "Get out of my house before you do something that you're going to regret." But he knew that he was speaking in vain. Lex was persistent and whether Raul liked it or not, he was not going to back down.

Lex laughed lightly, a smile playing across his lips. "On the contrary, I'm not going to regret it at all. I'm going to enjoy it immensely. You beat, bound and arranged for Chloe to die since you seemed to think that her knowledge could derail you and she and I have not been lovers for years. What about Arianna?" he asked with mock thoughtfulness, leaning back in the leather chair lazily.

If possible, Raul looked infinitesimally more murderous. "From what I understand you kept her in a cell in order to interrogate her, find out exactly what she knew so you could understand just how much damage control you needed to do. I don't think I could find a reasonable cause to detain her, but people go missing every day. I'm sure that pillow talk makes for interesting conversation; I wonder how much she knows. I'm quite interested in cracking her open, see what's—" Raul lunged forward and nearly tackled him, but Lex had the muscle advantage as well as weeks of research expounding his belief that she was his one weak point.

It was the quietest scuffle either had ever seen or been part of, but it resolved in Lex getting him in some semblance of a choke hold and Raul using every inch of his self-control to refrain from exclaiming in pain. Fortunately he had finished his drink, so when the glass dropped to the carpet nothing spilled or clattered.

"Now, the choice is yours. If you give me what I want…what reason would I have to do any harm to her? Of course if you refuse I'll be forced to do what you did, though perhaps with more force. But in the end, the same intent will be present."

Raul let out an involuntary and strangled cry. Lex released him with a shove, letting him stumble forward and gasp for air.

"Would you like to watch? I got the feeling that you've got some voyeuristic tendencies; you've always liked an audience. How would you like to be in one? It would certainly be a change from the norm."

Raul glared at him with absolute loathing but didn't speak. He feigned breathlessness, staggering toward his hidden gun but Lex pulled him backward by the belt. "No, please stay where you are. You knew I was watching out for her, that I was following you. Wanted to get my hopes up, didn't you? You are one sick bastard."

Lex came to his feet, a full three inches taller than his counterpart. He leaned down and whispered, holding Raul back by the belt buckle. "I can get her right now. Hate to be sexist, but I think that she will break far easier than you. She's just not accustomed to it."

Raul bucked his hold, the hot rage melting his icy demeanor once and for all. "No." It was a word and a sentence all in one, and he nearly growled it.

And he told him. Just like that. Lex had done his research and was surprised to find that Raul was human after all, and even the mighty have an Achilles heel. Raul sank into his favorite chair and Lex listened, a recording device of course pinned under his jacket so he didn't miss a word.

He knew that he was done. That he was used and now useless but something registered in his mind that escaped his notice beforehand. "You said that she was bruised," he said, comprehension dawning.

"How could you—" But he knew, of course he knew. But it was ridiculous, impossible, but he knew.

Lex smiled. "Checkmate."

Raul gaped, guard completely dropped. He couldn't believe it, he didn't want to. He had wanted her dead so very badly and he had actually failed, if what Lex was saying was true. There was no reason to maintain the façade. "How…"

But Lex shook his head, clearly not in the sharing mood. "Just so you are aware, if the information you've tendered turns out to be faulty I will be forced to resort to plan B, as much as it pains me." He smirked, and though he would never admit it the parallels between he and Raul were abundantly clear.

Raul shot him a furious glance, but Lex knew that he had told the truth. He had a sort of deflated look that often accompanied someone who lost all leverage. He was out of bartering chips and he was going to die knowing that in the end that horrid bitch was still walking the planet.

"How do you plan on killing me? Dismemberment, simple disappearance act, burglary gone wrong?" he asked tiredly, rubbing his eyes and wishing now more than ever that he had the means to kill Lex Luthor.

Lex shook his head. "No, though don't get me wrong, it would be delightfully gratifying. I'm afraid I can't raise suspicion now, not when I need to get rid of your colleagues."

Raul glanced up at him, appraising him and looking for some form of weaponry that he was going to use to do the deed but once again coming up empty. "You're about, oh, four minutes from dying, actually," he said conversationally.

"Is that so?"

Lex nodded. "I told you, I did my homework. I happen to know your favorite drink, how you drink it and how frequently. Heart arrhythmia, how unfortunate. I never would have suspected." If there was smugness in his voice, it belonged there. He felt justified. He could finally tip his hand, and the look on Raul's face made it completely worth it.

Raul tried to stand, but it was too late. His legs wouldn't give him purchase.

And he waited until Raul slumped over in his chair, quietly convulsing and breath slowing as his heart turned on him. His final request was for Lex to leave Arianna alone and he acquiesced. He would have and could have done it if necessary, but he knew his subject wouldn't allow such a thing and never had the slightest intention.

Lex cleaned up and replaced the bottle, careful to eradicate any evidence that he had been there.

Arianna found her husband dead in his favorite chair early the next morning; she had a dull headache that normally accompanied a hangover though she hadn't drank the evening before. Of course after discovering him such a trifling irritation was forgotten. How could she know that Lex had studied her too, and that she was feeling the after effects of a sedative?

Foul play was never suspected.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

-Four months after the crash-

Lois came home to the usual pile of mail awaiting her, but one envelope stuck out amongst the bills and various junk. The name and address were handwritten and she felt her stomach drop as she recognized the script. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion, but she didn't hesitate. She tore it open, mangling the packaging with reckless abandon and pulled out the folded piece of stationary.

It was what she had been waiting for since the day Chloe 'died,' and almost a third of a year had passed already.

_Release the information. Don't worry, you'll be safe_.

And she was more than willing to acquiesce, and acquiesce she did. There was just one little stickler...the note wasn't in Chloe's handwriting. It was in Lex's.

* * *

**PRESENT DAY**

Lex didn't move out of earshot of his telephone for the entirety of the morning. His new people were attentive and didn't ask questions, acting as his official spokesman throughout the day. He had put in more than enough hours the past few weeks, answering questions and offering his 'heartfelt' apologies for his prior actions motivated by his ruthless backers. He hadn't even needed to get rid of them; they had all quickly resigned after the public had rallied and taken the President's side.

It was funny; the same people who were willing to gun down a hero for a cash prize took such a moral stand against Raul's henchmen. They had never before been in the public eye, like their leader they worked under the radar and weren't able to contend with the sudden publicity. Lex's lips twitched at the memory of crowds rallying for him, eating up every word.

Lois was only human, she couldn't resist the opportunity and she knew, or in the very least hoped that Chloe would understand. She had been fair and balanced during the very intimate and revealing expose months before, and he knew that she was having a bit of difficulty dealing with her sudden fame. Symone was bowing before her, willing to give her any and everything she asked for.

There was no doubt that she had quickly and suddenly outgrown the Planet and she was combating offers left and right from the New York Times, San Francisco Sun and even foreign news outlets. Chloe would have been proud if only she knew.

The country had embraced him and banded together, accepting his version of events without question, and the fact that there was no one to contest his story certainly helped. Re-election was a given, and some of his supporters were starting to make noises about lifting the two term limit. He was careful not to comment on it, hoping that his loyal fans...or more accurately _followers _would do the dirty work for him.

The phone rang and only Lex's compulsion to let it ring twice stopped him from seizing the receiver the moment it sounded.

"Hello?" He thought he sounded sufficiently nonchalant.

"She's on her way in," a woman whispered conspiratorially. Luckily Lex had the main office bugged, but he thanked the receptionist nonetheless. So difficult to find good help these days.

He surreptitiously slipped a pair of ear buds in and waited to hear the sound of the door open. He swore that he could hear her footsteps in the hall, but he couldn't be certain if that was true or just wishful thinking.

Lex waited in bated breath for her to speak and it took a few moments for her to do so, but she sounded confident and unfazed by the new life that was laid down at her feet. It took a while for them to get the pleasantries out of the way and for her future boss to start asking the questions he wanted. For a moment he thought that she would refuse, certainly she saw through the transparent excuse. But she answered, perhaps with a sardonic bite in her tone.

Hearing her voice was a feeling like no other. He only wished that he had a visual to go along with the audio, but it didn't matter. The security cameras outside had caught her going into the building so he could picture her perfectly.

He had won. It was that simple, no one remained to contest him effectively. And at the height of this popularity he was able to infiltrate certain news organizations and keep any morale diminishing stories under wraps. There was no announcement to that effect, and the change was subtle but notable. Chloe was legally dead but physically fine, and that was just one more thing that he needed to conquer. It would be difficult, but he had confidence.

Because despite his deficiencies, Lex Luthor had never had a shortage of confidence.

* * *

She could feel Lex in the room.

It wasn't a sense that she could justify or explain, but she just knew that whatever she was saying, he was hearing. It was no more than she had expected, she even entertained the idea of him jumping out from underneath the desk for a moment before deciding that it was unlikely.

Clark was off acquainting himself with the city, he had promised without provocation that he was going to steer clear of the red and blue suit for the day. They had an apartment to sign the lease for and celebrations to have. There was no one alive or in power who would care that Chloe Sullivan had survived the crash, and no one was going to look. It was wonderful and it was hard to believe, but apart from Raul and his merry band of murderers Lex had assured her that no one else was aware of her importance.

In between questions, Chloe interjected one of her own, "What exactly does this job entail? I know that's a silly question to ask on a job interview, but I never got specifics."

Quite apart from looking puzzled or surprised, he actually looked relieved to have an excuse to stop interrogating her. "Well, while we have many different branches, twelve, to be exact, we were in need or another person with...how should I say? Keen investigative prowess. Research the companies we do business with, including thorough background checks on the major players, things like that. You'll pretty much be given free reign, and at the risk of sounding boastful we have computer programs here so exhaustive that they know everything short of the color underwear you're wearing."

Damn that Lex. That sounded perfect, of course, and she could hardly believe that he found a job so suited for her in such a short span of time. Though by now, she really should have stopped being surprised.

Chloe felt a rush of affection for him, and it was such sudden emotions that made it difficult for her to forget his hold on her or how much she loved him. But that didn't change anything. She wasn't with the lesser of two men; she was just still suffering the loss of a future that would have been ideal. She shunted it to the back of her mind, and recalled a quotation she had read years ago that made her smile.

_Thinking is like taking a shit. You can put it off, but not forever. _The corners of her mouth twitched at the memory, it had been Lex who suggested she read Dreamcatcher in the first place.

While stubborn may be one word for it, Chloe preferred decisive. While that future was long gone, she had a new one mapped out in front of her that she couldn't wait to experience. One with the man she had loved since he was a boy, since before she knew or understood exactly what he was. But even then, her feelings never changed. She had given up on a romantic future simply because he didn't seem interested; he was too busy playing out the Lana and Clark soap opera to realize what he was passing up on. And now he was truly a man, a wonderful, selfless man who loved her and wanted to spend his life with her. The saying certainly held true; when it rained it poured.

When it was clear that Chloe had no follow up questions, her boss reluctantly continued on his line of inquiry. "Are you single?"

And she knew that this was the question Lex cared most about.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

It hadn't felt remotely like they were on the lam. There were no close calls, no random vacationer in Guadalajara who happened to recognize them or government agents dropping down from the sky to give Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan a run for their money. Despite slight discrepancies in the wreckage from the plane crash there were no ongoing investigations, and the famed 'they' seemed to be more than satisfied with the way Chloe Sullivan's alleged demise played out.

No one would have expected that the near mythic creature Superman would rescue her from the crashing airplane and leave the rest of the passengers behind and a body in her stead, and to both of their surprise there was no real conspiracy theories in the making.

However, seeing as most of the theories would have come from either Lois or Chloe, it was understandable that nothing had surfaced as of yet. It was hard to live day to day without being able to communicate with Lois, but she knew that it was necessary and Clark was more than willing to volley messages between the two on an irregular basis, though after a month or so he stopped venturing into Metropolis.

Initially he made many sojourns to the states seeing as he needed to leave two weeks notice at the Planet after a few weeks of pretend grieving and make a show of moving. On one of his last 'official' trips he had returned with a newspaper clipping from a D.C. paper briefly stating that the famed Raul had died in his home of some hereditary heart problem.

Clark and Chloe exchanged glances and hid their relief. Clark had wanted to rend the man limb from limb himself but he couldn't just check his morals at the door and Chloe couldn't help but feel satisfied at how it had all turned out. She was glad he was dead...her wrists would be sore whenever it rained and her jaw clicked when she yawned thanks to him. And she was very happy to have these slight annoyances as opposed to the far more permanent alternative.

After Clark's notice expired he left Metropolis for good, quickly and quietly stealing his records from city hall, Smallville and the Planet. It was a long time before anyone noticed that these things had gone missing, and though he had lived in Kansas for nearly thirty years, he left nothing in his wake apart from the farm and an archive of articles. He even planned on retaining his name after the move, seeing as Raul was dead and no one else would think to hunt him down apart from Lex...and thanks to Chloe he wouldn't have to try very hard.

They didn't stay in touch with the outside world, so how could they know that everything was changing? Clark didn't venture out as Clark Kent, he only left Chloe in order to patrol the world as Superman and he could hardly drop by a newspaper stand to catch up on current events.

A half of a year had passed in what felt like a flash, and at first their venture into exile felt more like an extended holiday. Thanks to Lex's interference she wasn't plagued with dread concerning the rest of her life, and she sometimes felt compelled to conceal her eagerness from Clark. He made a good show of accepting her decision, taking the blow stoically enough, but she knew that he didn't like it one bit.

They never stayed in one place for longer than a week or two and Chloe practically had to push Clark to resume his vigilantism, but he was forced to go far from their current hiding place in the extremely unlikely case that someone ever figured out the particulars. If they had learnt anything from this near fatal trip into twisted politics it was that there was no such thing as being too careful.

She tried her best not to think about Lex, and she already had the benefit of extensive practice. Luckily they were too busy to leave her time for pining and dwelling on what had already passed and she knew perfectly well that all of the rehashing in the world couldn't alter the past, but she knew that Clark wasn't quite so certain. Their sojourn around Europe and South America hadn't exactly been the solidifying turning point in their relationship that she had been hoping for. Towards the end, it even felt as though they were drifting apart.

Chloe didn't understand what changed and Clark was afraid that nothing had.

In the beginning he had simply been thrilled that she was alive and relatively unscathed. He had been none too pleased when she told him that their venture into paradise was only going to be temporary and she knew that he was frustrated that she hadn't taken the opportunity to be free from Lex's scrutiny. He would study her when she was quiet and not paying attention, fearful that he was plaguing her thoughts and somehow, even thousands of miles away, he was still instilling doubt in her mind. It was difficult, if not impossible, for Clark to believe that for once he had won.

Maybe it was because he knew that Lex had been her only real weakness for the better part of a decade and that she had never stopped loving him. He had heard her when she said that she wanted to be with him, that she loved him but he still had doubts. Chloe had made a difficult decision when the options were very limited, but now that Raul was gone and Lex victorious what would stand in her way? Would she have accepted his offer for a new identity if she hadn't subconsciously wanted to keep him in her life?

Chloe had no idea that he was wracked with such insecurity. For once, she wasn't.

What she and Lex shared was something that she could never replicate and she wasn't going to live her life comparing the past with the present...with her future. And she wasn't hiding anything, Clark was well aware of how she felt even if he chose not to discuss it. Those feelings would never fade or simply live as a memory, it was who she was and Clark wanted her as is with no edits or retouching.

One night, for it was night though the sun had yet to set in their far corner of paradise, they sat on the porch of their temporary villa...all possible thanks to Lex's suspiciously generous contribution. He had slipped the money in with all of her information, and that really stuck in Clark's throat as well...which of course was what Lex had wanted.

They sat side by side on a cushioned but still uncomfortable bench, arms near but not quite touching as they looked at the beginnings of the sunset.

"We're going to have to talk about this," said Clark, startling her.

She glanced over to him. "About what?" But she knew. Of course she knew. Neither one had the courage to broach the subject before, perhaps because both were afraid of what the other would say. She had always been terrified that he would realize that this wasn't what he wanted, that didn't want to be with her if she was so willing to accept the assistances of a former lover and current love, and she completely understood that. It wasn't a typical situation and it was hard to devise a protocol for it; bald boy meets girl, they fall in love, bald boy betrays girl and is willing to subject girl's best friend to torture, girl and best friend end up together, but bald boy is ever present...at least in their minds.

"Us." It was a loaded word, she didn't know if he meant he and she or he, she and Lex. But either way, he was right.

"Yeah." For a former reporter, she wasn't particularly loquacious at the moment.

"Eight months are almost up," he said, though this was a slight exaggeration. They still had two more months of solitude, but he couldn't take not knowing anymore. "Is the plan still on?"

Chloe's tongue traced the length of her upper lip nervously as she nodded. "Yes...if you're game." She wanted to know where this conversation was headed so that she could brace herself, but his face was guarded and so she remained confused.

He frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, a tad defensive.

This was the stilted conversation they had been subjecting each other to the past few days. In the beginning, everything was magical and wonderful but as the end neared something changed, and it was something that she couldn't quite put her finger on but they had been on edge for far too long.

"You're not happy that I agreed to his...proposal." It wasn't a question, but it certainly was an understatement. She knew him too well to be convinced by his innocent assertions of 'whatever you want is fine by me,' and she completely understood his reservations. She couldn't imagine how it would feel if after all of their careful planning it had been Lana who had come up with the ace in the hole, who had the contacts and ability to keep them from a permanent state of exile. Her toes curled even thinking of it, and if she were to be honest the comparison wasn't really the situation's equivalent because try as they may, leaving Lex firmly in the past was proving to be more difficult than they had anticipated. And living a life of isolation, while of course preferable to death, was hardly ideal.

Chloe could have done it...not only that, she _would _have done it in an instant without complaint or regret. But the idea of living out the remainder of her days in such a purposeless manner never appealed to her, and Lex had known that. Of course she was more than happy to spend the duration of her temporary exile in various, mostly tropical, locations, but making it permanent would have been an entirely different ballpark. How could she have lived, without a job or any real human contact apart from Clark?

And it wouldn't have been good for him, either. Companionship was wonderful when you were together because you wanted to be, not out of necessity. And Chloe was growing increasingly afraid that he was only here to protect her and that when the situation had actually played itself out his feelings had changed.

She didn't want to have him because he felt obligated, she wanted to know that he loved her for her and wanted to be with her for that reason and that reason alone. Little did she know that he felt the exact same way.

"Of course I'm not," he said, agreeing immediately. "I just...I don't know, I had really wanted us to get away from him for good, you know, I didn't want him to still...to still have this hold over you." It all came out in such a rush of words that it took her a moment to comprehend it all.

Chloe narrowed her eyes, feeling a rush of emotion bowl her over. It took a moment for her to catch her breath. "And what hold do you think he has over me?"

"You love him," he said it quickly, as though it would hurt less to just get it over with, like ripping off a Band-Aid.

She waited for more, but he didn't have anything else to say. "And?" she asked.

"And what?" he snapped. For the life of her Chloe wasn't sure she had ever heard him quite so irritable.

"You already knew that," she said, baffled.

He averted his gaze and she braced herself for something painful, though she wasn't certain exactly what for. "For all I know you could love him more than you love me." He knew it sounded petty, but it was a genuine concern. Really, seeing as she was legally dead she really couldn't work out a relationship with him if she wanted to...or so he thought. Of course he should have realized that if Chloe came around to Lex's way of thinking he would most certainly find a way to make it work.

Clark thought that he was the only feasible alternative, and what Lex had said haunted him. No matter when, he would be waiting in the wings and the idea that some weeks, months or years down the line Chloe would decide that her second choice wasn't what she wanted.

They had been friends for so long and he knew that she had to love him but he really didn't know to what extent. It had been plaguing his mind for some time, and he was almost afraid to speak for fear of having his anxieties justified.

He continued, wanting to get it all out without interruption, "You can want to be with him more than you want to be with me. What if one day you wake up and look over at me and cringe because you wished he was there instead?" Chloe flinched.

Lex's words had hit him hard, though it had been a gradual infection the thought now consumed him. He had seemed so absolutely certain that one day Chloe would come back to him, that Clark was the safe choice that she would regret and renege on sometime down the line. It was hard to scoff off his assertions when Lex seemed so positively confident.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and turned to face him, lifting her hands to his chin and forcing him to look at her square in the eye. "I pick you. I want you. I know who I can live with and who I can live without. And I want you."

His eyebrow creased and his face contorted with such a flurry of emotions that for the life of her she couldn't tell what he was thinking. "You love him," he repeated. Every time he said the words it hurt even more. This seemed to be a conversation that they were doomed to repeat over and over again. He would have thought that by now he would have built up immunity, but when it came to Chloe he couldn't.

She didn't deny it; she had told him so before. But a thought hit her like a punch to the stomach and she felt something deep inside of her give in. "Did you change your mind?" she asked, forcing herself to sound rational and as though the world wasn't crashing all around her. She dropped her hands and turned away, but he wasn't about to give her up quite so easily.

Clark reached for her arms and held them tight, rising from the loveseat and bringing her up with him. "No. Never." And this was absolute; there was no wavering or uncertainty in his tone. He had unconsciously made his decision years before and nothing that this world could throw at him would make Clark reconsider.

He pushed on, "I don't want to be something you regret, I don't want you to look back five, ten or twenty years from now and see that this isn't what you want. That...staying with me was a mistake." She looked in his eyes, astonished by the sincerity. She could not believe that he was so horribly wracked with doubts and insecurity. How did she miss it? Why hadn't she reassured him?

All along she had thought that Clark and Superman were always one in the same, self-assured and powerful, but too often she forgot that there was a human side that she failed to realize that he needed more encouragement than her simply being present.

He pressed on, "Because I don't think I could take losing you if you gave me any reason to believe that I had you in the first place. If I had to, if I needed to, I could let you go now but I don't think I could be that selfless if you change your mind...if you decide in a few years to throw caution to the wind and go back after him." She opened her mouth to protest, but he didn't allow her to get a word in edgewise. "I had to think what my life would be like without you and I was even willing to work with Lex to stop that from happening. Do you have any idea what that means?" She didn't, but she felt an incredibly heavy weight lift off of her and she could breathe easier.

He wasn't having second, or third, thoughts. He knew what he wanted, and how in God's name could he know that she was terrified of the same thing? She looked pointedly down at his hands until he released her, albeit reluctantly, so she could take charge and throw her arms around his neck. Their lips didn't meet, but if he wasn't Superman he was certain that her embrace would have been a bone crushing one. He was surprised, but didn't hesitate in hugging her back.

"God, you can be so stupid!" she said, and that was hardly the remark he had expected. "Didn't I tell you? After I kissed him, after we found out about Dr. Randall, didn't I tell you that I wanted to be with you? Did you get selective amnesia?" she asked, but she was far too happy to truly have any conviction in what she said.

He lifted her off the ground and spun her around effortlessly and she laughed the first real laugh he had heard in a very long time. "I'm not going to change my mind. I want you!" He put her down and she swatted his arm playfully.

He looked down at her in what could only be described as a look of unabashed adoration, and it was a look he hadn't been bestowing as of late. At first she had attributed it to his hesitancy to make this final step, to legitimatize themselves in a new city with new names but she hadn't seen the fact that he had been trying to get some distance in case she had changed her mind, wanting to give her space so that if she left him it would somehow hurt less. He knew that it wouldn't have worked, but was glad that he was never going to have to test that theory.

"That was different," he insisted, "that was when your life was at stake. Have you learned nothing from your repeated viewings of _Speed_?" he asked, feeling free to tease her. "High stress situations are not good places to make permanent decisions, especially about relationships," the corner of her mouth twitched at the reference, "I was the only one who you could talk to, that you could really trust, and in the interest of survival it made sense for us to run off together. But I didn't know...now that you have the slate wiped clean and a chance for a whole new life why would you want to be with me?" he asked, and she still couldn't believe the level of sincerity.

It was her turn to look skyward, completely ignoring the inspiring sunset happening just behind her. It wasn't important at the moment. "I don't think that you really understand, Clark. You're not the runner up; you're not my consolation prize." She had a feeling that she had said all of this before, but she was more than willing to repeat it to make him understand.

"I'm not with you for any reason other than because I want to be, and at the risk of putting words in the mouth of future-Chloe, I'm always going to want to be with you. I love you," she said simply, and she meant every word of it. She didn't love Clark more or less than Lex, it was just different. She couldn't explain it, but even after the adrenaline had worn off her feelings hadn't changed.

She didn't need a crystal ball to tell her that if Lex had made better decisions or if circumstances had played out differently she would be with him. She loved him, God did she love him, but she couldn't spend her life playing through 'what if' scenarios. And if there was a magical reset button that put the clock back and gave her the chance to do things differently, she wouldn't touch it. Chloe knew what she wanted and wasn't about to hurt Clark by working through hypotheticals. She wasn't selfish and she didn't want to subject him to her own insecurities especially since he was saddled with his own.

"You know that it wouldn't be good for either of us to live out our lives in seclusion, albeit gorgeous, tropical, looks like a commercial seclusion," she conceded when he raised his eyebrows skeptically. "I just...want us to have a life. An actual life where we don't have to hide and I know that Metropolis is out of the question now but a new city could really do us good."

Clark nodded, but his eyebrows were still knit together and Chloe had the distinct impression that he wasn't convinced. "They already have someone looking out for that city," he said stubbornly.

Chloe laughed; surprised by this sticking point, though she had to admit that it should have occurred to her before. As difficult as it was for her to imagine a life without research and her different forms of detective work that was nothing compared to how Clark felt about being Superman. While he had tried to remain as low profile as possible slowly but surely all of his energy went toward his 'super' persona and Clark Kent simply became the mask he wore on a day to day basis. The idea of treading on marked ground clearly didn't appeal to him or his hero-sized ego.

Years ago Chloe might have discouraged this transformation, claiming that it was safe to maintain some level of regularity but as all of his human contacts fell to the wayside either through death, choice or estrangement it was becoming increasingly difficult to make a case for the opposing side. If she was going to be with him she was going to have to accept that he was no longer a man masquerading as a superhero, but instead a superhero masquerading as a man.

"Afraid of encroaching on previously staked territory?" she asked and he smiled with a self-conscious reluctance. "Well, you can flit off to places all around the world where chaos reigns and I'm sure that they will be more than happy to accept your assistance. From what I hear about this job," and it wasn't much, just a date and location for the interview as well as the salary per year, "you can be Superman full time. No more deadlines and pretending, you can just be yourself."

It was clear that there was a battle being waged across his face, his features contradicted each other as happiness, relief, confusion and a litany of other emotions vied for domination. She waited for a reply, but he didn't offer one but she could tell from the expression on his face that all of his fears hadn't been alleviated. "There's something else, isn't there?" she made it into a question to goad him into responding, but she knew it was a fact.

He looked surprised by the depth of her observation, but knew that if the tables were turned he could do the same. "That night...with the plane," he started and she smiled encouragingly.

"Yeah, I vaguely remember."

"I could have stopped the crash," he said abruptly, and her eyebrows shot up into her hairline. Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't this. "I could have caught the plane, landed it, and saved everyone on board." His voice lowered an octave and he averted her eyes with shame. And to be quite frank, she couldn't say that the same thing hadn't occurred to her. "But I didn't, I let all of those people die. I don't know what that makes me."

Chloe released his hand, but he didn't seem to notice. She traced his jaw with her index finger and rested her head in the nook of his shoulder, determined to comfort him the best that she could.

"Raul wanted everyone on that plane dead. I might have been the primary objective and they were collateral damage, but that doesn't matter. He wouldn't accept defeat, he put me on that plane for a reason, he could've done it some other way but he didn't, he wanted them gone for reasons we don't understand. And you know what would have happened if you did that." Of course he did, they both were well aware of the repercussions. There would be an international manhunt waged on her, courtesy of Raul, and suspicion of Superman's allegiance and identity would have been heightened if he allowed a prisoner to escape.

Chloe had tried to feel remorse after the dust settled and she had time to think it through, she wanted to feel as though the course of action that Lex and Clark had taken was regrettable but she just couldn't conjure up the necessary emotion. She wondered if this made her a bad person, if she was more like Lex than she had thought.

"I'm supposed to save everyone, not just one person," he said, waxing philosophical. But they both knew that he was playing the devil's advocate, he had a choice to make and he made it. And in the end, it hadn't really been much of a choice. He had never so much as considered the alternative.

Chloe looked up at him, scrutinizing. "Are you sorry?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"No," he said without hesitation. If he had the opportunity to redo it, he still wouldn't have chosen the alternative. He loved Chloe and would have done anything to protect her.

Her lips quirked into an unwilling smile. "There you go."

* * *

When Clark and Chloe resurfaced, it was in an entirely different world. From the outside it looked quite the same, there weren't any notable alterations that could be discerned from the naked eye but there was a tangible shift that neither of them could ignore...and both had already braced themselves for the worst.

Chloe nearly bowled over in shock when she realized that Lex had exposed his secret, the whole debacle with illegal experimentation and Dr. Randall was exposed for the world to see and know. Of course he adamantly and (most people believed) sincerely denied any involvement in his disappearance. He had only hired him out of curiosity and some misguided sense of civic duty only to find himself over his head, or so he claimed.

Luckily she had time to adjust to the fact that the secret that he had been guarding so astutely for all these years was revealed of his own volition before she was thrust into the reality. But at least Lois had informed her of his decision, albeit months after its occurrence, as opposed to letting her find out on her own. Not that this made it much better.

The only reason it had taken so long for the pair to cotton on was their naive desire to isolate themselves and enjoy their exile for as long as possible. It had been months since Clark had made a visit to Metropolis, mostly because he wanted to distance himself from the past as much as humanly possible. He hadn't paid much attention to the news and whenever Lex's name came up he instantly tuned out or changed the channel. He didn't need any more reminders, but if he had been a little less rigid it would have all come as less of a shock.

Lois had been visibly wound up when he had visited her, it was clear that she wanted to tell Chloe months before she was able to and she was consumed with anxiety. Despite the fact that she was the elder of the two, she still yearned for her cousin's approval and knew that Chloe would be none too happy to discover that so much had happened without her knowledge.

She had stared down at the newspaper Lois had passed off to Clark, half packed bags cast aside and momentarily forgotten. The paper was months old but the centerfold still packed quite a punch.

In the end, Lex had won. He really had, and Chloe could barely believe it. He had successfully controlled the story, got those who backed Raul out of power and subtly blamed the entire mess on them and came out smelling like roses.

And this breaking news had been a pivotal point in Lois's career, and it was difficult for Chloe to feel angry when someone she loved benefited so much from it. This transformed her from a somewhat obscure journalist to an infamous media sensation. Lois was by far the best known reporter in the country, having handled this Watergate-esque story with tact and precision.

Clark didn't comment as she pored over the exclusive. He brooded silently and Chloe understood why. They had risked everything to unearth the truth, dig up some sort of leverage and he turned it around so that his closet would yet again be without skeletons...or at least without skeletons backed up by proof. And now their bargaining chip proved worthless, he had called their bluff and now they were without leverage.

He had won; there was no two ways about it. He had one-upped Raul all the way to his grave; he had dethroned the silent dissenters and saved Chloe from certain death all the while keeping her in his sights. And Chloe could hardly stand it.

While the future was not cemented, it looked like the citizens of the US were rallying behind their President. Instead of seeing his initial willingness to experiment on a borderline human being (the full details were never disclosed to 'protect the innocent party') as proof of a sickening lack of character, they embraced the fallibility of humanity that this 'mistake' and his subsequent confession represented.

But truth be told, in Clark's mind Lex could have that. He felt fairly certain that the perpetually hopeful and cocky President Luthor wouldn't do anything to compromise Chloe's newly reinstated, albeit uneasy, trust of him. She would forever be grateful to him for all he had done to help her, both before and after the crash. Clark knew that a few weeks before knowing that she would always feel somehow indebted to Lex would have made him wracked with insecurity, but he was still flying high on what Chloe had said.

She was careful to reassure him, not overtly so but she talked about the future more than before. She spoke of his continued vigilantism as though it was a given, glad that she could provide the financial security in order for Clark to continue to pursue his calling.

When he had contacted his mother, he hadn't just given her the safety deposit box information to use in case of emergency...he had gotten something in return. He didn't know when he was going to give her the ring, but for the first time he knew for certain that she would say yes. And for now that was enough. But he couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life with her and he wanted it to start as soon as they settled in.

He had casually mentioned the possibility of children in the future and he had seen her light up, though she tried her best to hide it. There were no guarantees, he was after all from a different planet, but he was more than willing to try.

And while he didn't like that Lex had once again proven himself to be a worthy adversary, but he had long ago accepted that Lex's winning charisma and political savvy made him an untouchable politician. It was Chloe who had violently opposed his appointment, but when it came down to it Clark had gradually become disconnected from the minute details of the government machine.

As the years passed all that rooted him to the minor goings on in the United States was his job at the Daily Planet and his best friend turned girlfriend Chloe, and now he was done with the Planet. He was accustomed to seeing the bigger picture, it wasn't in his nature to butt heads with interchangeable politicians, and he simply wanted to save lives without getting involved in the particulars.

He supposed that he should have cared more, felt enraged or a need to expose him further but as he cast a quick look toward a seething Chloe he forced himself to conceal a smile. He had her, Lex could have everything else.

* * *

**PRESENT DAY**

The question thudded loudly in her ears and though she wasn't sure exactly what expression flitted across her face, it made her new boss wince. And after meeting him she could hardly believe that her discomfort would make him uncomfortable. His cocky demeanor made her think that he didn't consider much that extended beyond his fingertips, but she would have a good long time to figure him out.

"I'm not married," she said, quickly deciding to start there. "But I'm in a serious relationship."

She could feel Lex's disappointment, she could picture the litany of emotions battling for dominance on his face and she felt momentarily sorry to say it. But that was before common sense kicked in. She had told him in no uncertain terms that she was with Clark for better or worse, what gave him the right to care? _Well, he did save your life_. She hated when her subconscious was right.

He saved her because he loved her, and he hoped that in doing so he would somehow undo the damage that laid waste to their relationship years before. And maybe it would have succeeded if not for Clark's involvement in her life. She owed her life to both of them, but Clark had been an important part of her past and present for going on twenty years and he was also her future.

It seemed to go against the fiber of his being to do so, but he continued on this line of questioning, "How serious, if you don't mind, Ms. Alexander?" He was going to kill Lex. He knew that she wouldn't report him to the Better Business Bureau but he hated going against his integrity. It felt wrong.

She wondered if she should downplay it for Lex's sake, but knew that she couldn't leave him with any hope no matter how much it might comfort him. "We're living together and...at the risk of counting my chickens before they hatch I don't think I'll be Ms. Alexander for much longer."

Lex, so many miles away, threw his tiffany lamp across the room and it shattered against the far facing wall. It was a show of how scared of him his people were that they didn't come in when they heard the noise. They knew very well not to interrupt him when he requested that he not be disturbed.

"I apologize for the personal nature of these questions, Ms. Alexander." He extended his hand and Chloe came to her feet and shook it. "You'll start next Monday; I'll show you to your office then. Pleasure to meet you."

She nodded and smiled tersely. "Likewise, Mr. Wayne." And with that, she exited, ignoring the receptionist's further scrutiny.

The secretary wondered what it was about this unremarkable girl that attracted the attention of two such powerful men but it was of no use. She never would be able to guess.

Clark met her outside the building and she slipped her hand into his and glanced up at him. She had no regrets, at least no substantial ones worth mentioning. She was committed to him, but she didn't feel trapped or afraid. It was strange to think that the boy she had loved as a teenager was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with, but she couldn't wait to get started.

"How does the job look?" he asked as they walked down the street. He was playing normal today, but she wasn't fooled. His eyes were slightly narrowed and he was ready for action any time someone was stupid enough to mess with them. Seeing as it was midday on a busy street, not even in Gotham City was that likely.

"I think I'm really going to like it. Lots of technology at the tips of my fingertips, background checks galore. It'll certainly sate my nosiness." He smiled skeptically at that, he didn't think her curiosity could ever be satisfied. She nudged him with her shoulder. "I saw that." He was glad that she was excited. He was still a bit wary, but he trusted her.

The city's bleakness certainly hadn't been exaggerated. While the elusive superhero had spent most of his nights cleaning up this hell hole there were still notable signs of wear and tear. As though she'd read his mind, she asked, "Still afraid you'll step on this Batman's toes?"

Clark guided her through the large cluster of people, all the while keeping an eye out to make sure no one tried to lift his wallet or her purse. A haggard man reached forward but he twisted his fingers quickly with Chloe none the wiser. "It's cause for concern," he admitted, "but I can always head out of state if it gets too crowded."

She was glad and even a bit surprised that he was so invested in making their fresh start work. When he realized that she felt the same as he did most reservations went on the wayside. He could work through all of that nonsense as long as they were happy.

"What's on the agenda?" she asked.

Clark glanced down at his watch and looked surprised. "We've got to get to the landlord to sign the lease in...fifteen minutes."

Her eyebrows jumped up and knit together simultaneously. "In this traffic? Oh my, I don't think we're going to make it," she said sarcastically, smiling up at Clark. "Well, I suppose we could..."

Before she finished that thought he dashed into an alley with a crooked smile; one upside of Gotham was a plethora of creepy alleyways, and he lifted Chloe up, hugging her to his chest before he took off like a bullet. His speed had definitely improved; even a camera wouldn't be able to catch the take off. She laughed, clinging to him out of habit as they sped off to their destination. She knew that given the choice, he'd rather fly than walk any day. And she was more than willing to fly right alongside him, well, in his arms, but you get the point.

It was a gray and bleak day, and from what she heard about America's crime capital (though it was going down in recent years) she had to get used to it. But it didn't matter, she'd had her fill of fun in the sun and just wanted to live her life, rainy days be damned.

He swooped downward just to hear her gasp and she swatted his shoulder, the hectic breeze making it impossible for her to gain any momentum, not that any hit would have so much as bruised him. "You jerk!" she shouted over the sound of the whipping wind.

"You like me anyway," he said, supremely unconcerned.

She laughed and nodded, though the movement was difficult. "Yeah, I guess. Maybe even a _little _more than that."

And he kissed her, square on the mouth with all of the _oomph _he could summon. For a second she was afraid that they would crash into a building or an airplane, but those worries melted away as she cleaved even closer to him. Funny, she had thought that there hadn't been any space between the two of them before but clearly she had been wrong. It felt good to touch him, like it was the way things were supposed to be now. And it was, he was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with even if she sometimes had to battle with thoughts of another.

She wondered if Lois would come and visit them, and hoped that she could finally see her cousin again. Chloe couldn't wait for them to have a semi-permanent home, but the way they were going any time without a place to call their own would be too long. They landed in another abandoned and sketchy alley still locked at the mouth, Clark still marveled at his luck. She could very well be the only woman who would be willing to live a life with someone plagued with a hero complex, compelled to make the world a better place, in the meantime forced to leave her behind more often than he would like.

But she understood and was willing, not only because she loved him but because he loved her so completely that she knew her being unhappy would stop him from being his whole self. They stepped into the building, surprised at its ample security. They signed the lease without hesitation, and the ring in Clark's pocket felt heavier than ever. He could hardly wait to ask her, but he forced himself to hold off.

This was her future, and she wanted it so very badly. _Goodbye, Lex._ Chloe couldn't be certain that he would keep his distance, but even if he approached she was going to stay strong regardless. She knew that looking back would be a waste of time and energy, but she still cast a wistful glance over her shoulder.

* * *

He didn't recall trashing his office, one moment he heard Chloe leave Bruce Wayne's office and the next his office lay in ruins, knuckle bleeding from an injury he didn't recall sustaining.

Lex leapt to his feet, surveying the damage. He always knew that he had a temper, but he prided himself on his ability to reign in it when necessary. He couldn't in all honesty claim that now with the proof before him. He couldn't explain his emotional state, at one moment he was irritated, the next irate and after that was a blur of hot colors and rage that whipped him into a whirlwind of fury and immense disappointment.

He remembered tearing up his bedroom in a fit of anger when she left him, but he had been able to contain himself from then until now. And he had no one to blame but himself. She had told him in no uncertain terms that she intended on staying with Clark, that she loved him and that she picked him. But he didn't really believe it, he had believed that she meant it but he found it hard, no, impossible, for him to believe that she could really and permanently walk away from what they had.

All these years later he couldn't even imagine loving someone else, let alone committing to someone in the long run. Not a day went by that he didn't think of her and he knew that she had to be the same. He had listened when she told him, he had understood every word but logic and reason often didn't measure up to the strength and pervasiveness of emotion. Clark was an obstacle, something to overcome in order to get her back.

But now...how could she embrace the possibility of spending her life with someone that wasn't him?

Bruce called him nearly an hour after when it was clear that Lex was not going to contact him. "I assumed you were listening in."

Lex snorted. "You assumed right."

Bruce sighed, he had known Lex for a good part of his life seeing as they were both the children of some of the most influential men in America. He had long since grown tired of his theatrics, but knew that he owed it to him to put up a supportive front. "That favor I owed you? Consider it paid."

Lex was too drained to argue with him, but put forth the effort nonetheless. "I suggested her to you, and trust me she will prove to be an asset."

Bruce chuckled, "Suggested? You all but demanded." But he couldn't complain, there was no denying that she had all the qualifications he was looking for, even if she was saddled with Presidential baggage.

"Yeah, well I suppose that no one needs to know exactly where so much of Wayne Enterprises money goes. Why such a staunch supporter of defense?" Lex had his suspicions, but they were no more than unjustified gut feelings.

The two boys never really got along all that well, but it served both of their interests to play nice for the time being. Bruce had nothing to gain from making the President of the United States his enemy, and Lex could only benefit from having someone like Bruce Wayne on his side. "Living in Gotham City is sure to make one cautious," he said mildly, but Lex had the distinct feeling that the subject was closed.

"She's coming back Monday?"

Bruce sighed, "Yes," he said testily. For a short while it seemed as though Lex was going to have a fall from grace, but per usual he worked it to his advantage. Bruce would have been relieved to have him knocked down a peg, but unfortunately now he was as formidable as ever.

"Good." He tried to sound as unerringly confident as usual, but knew that he wasn't quite up to par.

"Good? Lex, I know that it's none of my business..."

Lex angrily interjected, "Then stay out of it."

"You're the one who's brought me into it!"

He couldn't argue with that. "Fine. Speak."

Well, it was difficult to resist interfering when he was so clearly begging for his opinion...note the sarcasm. "I don't know and personally don't care what happened with the two of you and I'm doing my best to stay out of the know," he only hoped that Lex would return the favor if any concrete proof of Bruce's nighttime activities happened to fall into his lap, "but let it go. She's happy, why don't you want her to be happy?" Bruce felt a bit like a hypocrite, he had been guilty of the same before but hoped that he had reached the point where he would be able to let go if the opportunity ever resurfaced.

Lex cringed at his word choice. It wasn't that he didn't want her to be happy, he just wanted her to be happy with him. Just as Chloe had a blind spot when it came to him, he also had difficulty keeping focus with anything involving her. He was willfully incapable of understanding why she would let go of what they had when it would be so easy to recapture it again. It wasn't that he lacked the ability, he just didn't want to comprehend her rationale because he himself was completely and totally unable to imagine doing the same. Moving on?

In a perfect world where all the loose ends are tied up and everything reaches a neat and satisfying resolution Lex would realize that while he had won a long series of battles, somehow he had lost the war. While the math did not add up, there was nothing he could do about it. When he had betrayed her trust so long ago he compromised all they had strove to built and destroyed their future. Somewhere throughout the course of their relationship he had gone from lover to villain to love interest and somewhere between protagonist and antagonist. And he didn't want to straddle that line anymore.

In a perfect world he would realize that it was better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all...but he never did buy into that bullshit. He truly thought that Humphrey Bogart should have wrenched Ingrid Bergman from that plane and kissed her for all she was worth until she forgot about her husband and the war. It was what he would have done, hell, it was what he was _trying _to do.

He supposed this was his Casablanca, it was the end of the game and he could be like Bogey and let her fly away after he saved her from certain death, securing his spot as protagonist in the story. What did that make Clark? He didn't give a damn.

"Thanks for your words of wisdom," he finally said with a sneer and Bruce knew that he had touched a nerve. Lex wasn't the type to just give up, but he hoped that he would make an exception. This wasn't a business deal, it was a woman's life and future on the line. Bruce hung up, slightly discontent but knowing that it really didn't concern him and this Chloe girl seemed to be capable of handling herself. He personally didn't see the big draw, but who was he to question the mystery of love and obsession?

But Lex wasn't selfless and he was too jaded and pragmatic to comfort himself with philosophical sayings meant to soothe the cowards who stopped fighting for what they wanted. He wasn't going to stop, not now and not ever. He was going to look out for her until the day he died, even if that meant watching her marry another man, a man that he hated.

This wasn't Casablanca and he wasn't that good of a person. The funny thing was that he had all the money, power, clout and popularity that anyone could ever want, perhaps even more so, but he felt hollow. No, he wasn't going to give up...because that wasn't the Lex Luthor way. Long ago Lex had stored his faith in humanity in that one woman and to surrender now meant losing the best part of him. He had made that decision long ago and he wasn't about to change his mind.

As Lex sat in his trashed office he couldn't help but reflect on all that had transpired. Innately he knew that Chloe was a woman of her word, she had made up her mind and she wasn't likely to change it, but he couldn't just forget her. He knew that she meant this as a goodbye, that she wanted to tell him that she was moving on and that he should do the same but he simply couldn't acquiesce. He was going to love her until the day he died.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

Lex had been counting the rising and falling of her chest for so long that he lost track of time. The numbers flashing on the digital clock meant nothing to him, if he could measure days in Chloe's breaths he would. He didn't know exactly when she had become his world, pardon the hokey expression, but it really didn't matter. He could watch her for three days straight and not grow tired of it.

Of course it was better when she was awake, and though he protested when she opened her eyes, sensing scrutiny, he had been secretly hoping that she would awaken for the past three hundred or so inhalations. Her eyes narrowed and she smiled, somewhat hesitant. She really didn't understand the depth of his affection, she had spent years adoring someone who considered her a platonic friend and it was quite strange to have someone look at her in such rapt attention.

"What time is it?" she asked, voice somewhat hoarse and groggy. She sounded like a chain smoker.

While she could very easily roll over or even glance over her shoulder to check the clock she didn't want to leave the sanctity of his arms. She had thought that this would be the honeymoon period, that the months and years after wouldn't quite measure up. She had been wrong.

"It's a little after four," he said unapologetically and she let out a quick laugh.

"I don't know about you, but I have to get up in the morning to be berated by an under-caffeinated editor and I need to be at full capacity."

She knew that he had a meeting in the morning but she had quickly learnt that he would respond more effectively if she had a previous engagement. But as usual he had a solution for that, "Well, I could always fire said editor and promote you to the position."

Her eyebrows shot up and her lips curved into a sardonic smile. "Wow, I can't believe that I'm accidentally sleeping my way to the top. How very unwittingly smart of me. I'm sure my middle aged coworkers would be thrilled to work for some two decades their junior." And he had always liked that about her. She never accepted his teasing, though partly serious, offers. She wasn't preachy about it, either. She was simply matter-of-fact and he found himself itching to give her some sort of a leg up in the journalistic world.

It was a dog-eat-dog profession and she was young without the benefit of idealism. It took longer to burn out when you had stars in your eyes and unrealistic asperations. Chloe was already pragmatic, several dates with (near) doom had ensured that her rose-colored glasses remained untouched and growing dusty on her bureau. He knew that she would very likely remain in her current position for five or more years to come, and it frustrated him.

"Well, you could fire them." He was as subtle as a Nazi storm trooper.

She laughed and leaned into him, kissing the crook of his neck without hesitation. It just felt right, natural. One would be hard pressed to even call them friends to start with, so they weren't going through a difficult transition or having trouble seeing each other in a new light. Clark and Lex had been friends and Chloe had never been deemed a real object of interest, admittedly she wasn't as eye catching as Lana and when Clark and he had a falling out hostilities raged and neither cared much about the other.

"Destroying the opposition. Very Machiavellian of you."

He shrugged. "It's not exactly your style, I'll give you that, but sometimes I think you'd be better served to adopt a similar approach."

She quirked an eyebrow, and he could barely make the expression out in the darkness. "You do?" her voice had a dangerous edge to it.

"Well, you're hardly a doormat," he said as way of appeasing, "but fortune favors the proactive."

She shook her head. "I think that's the prepared."

"Hmm, I've heard it both ways."

She found herself smiling. "Never can admit defeat, can you?"

He shrugged yet again. "Never will."

He tried to compare his current emotion to how he felt about Lana but found that apples and oranges really couldn't be measured side to side. There had been passion, infatuation and the exciting feeling that he was stealing something that belonged to Clark. But genuine affection, that had always been missing. He didn't know what it really was until now. Lex was a busy man who enjoyed keeping active and pushing his career forward but he was surprised and a bit scared to discover that he'd rather stay here with her than do anything else. Political aspirations be damned.

This was the first and one of the last times of peace and calm. Clark knew and was coming to terms with it, Lex's political career was proving to be lucrative and Chloe was the happiest she had ever been, and little did she know that it would be a long time before she would feel anything like it again.

"Hate to bring it up, but you have on more that one occasion surrendered in an argument to me," she said, despite the necessity of sleep she couldn't resist.

He contemplated arguing, but knew that she had a valid point. "Well, you're different than most people."

"How so? Am I shorter, blonder? More adorable?"

He leaned forward and pressed his cheek against her bare shoulder and she felt him smile. "All of the above and more."

"How so?"

Lex had no idea how someone so intelligent could be so selectively obtuse. "You're worth losing to." She let that sink in for a moment, not sure exactly how to respond to such a statement.

"I'm glad to have that distinction, but I'm curious. What makes me worth it?" She wasn't seeking flattery or gratification, she really wanted to know.

"Like you don't know," she didn't, "if you'll forgive my crude four a.m. jargon--"

"Consider it forgiven," she interjected.

"Do you want me to answer or not?" She was silent and looking up at him with full attention, and he took that as a good sign. "You're someone who's worth sticking around for. In fact, you're the only someone worth sticking around for."

"How long do you think you'll stick around?" she asked, not realizing what she was saying until it was too late. Lack of sleep and overload of amazing sex had dulled her senses.

She felt him move in surprise, but he didn't hesitate in responding. "I'm thinking somewhere in the realm of forever. And I don't think that's subject to change. What about you?"

Chloe's inquisitiveness had always been a double edged sword, and she was barely able to overcome her embarrassment in order to answer. "I like hearing that," she admitted, "I like it a lot." She didn't know what else to say, and he didn't need her to say it.

And who would know that eight plus years later, with a Presidency, murder, new love, betrayal, bitterness, a faked death and a new beginning punctuating their lives that while everything had changed, in a strange way things were still the same.

They would always love each other, but like two ships passing in the night the timing was forever flawed. To the victor goes the spoils? If Lex was the former and Chloe the latter, clearly the phrase didn't apply.

----------**THE END-------**

**I tried to think of a way to resolve this months ago, but the truth of the matter is that Lex and Chloe simply don't have a neat and tidy resolution written in the stars. The way that they've developed makes that next to impossible. I didn't want to ruin the story by fabricating some bit of fluff, because life rarely gives us perfect endings, tying up all the loose bits into a cohesive story. I've loved every second of writing this story and I hope that you all enjoyed the ride. It's really hard for me to bring this to an end, but it has to be done. I appreciate all of your feedback and those of you who have stuck with me through nearly fifty chapters! Please review and tell me what you think, I am waiting in bated breath.**


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